Alison Hill graduated in 1985 with BSc (Hons) in Genetics from Aberdeen University.  and an MMedSci in Human Genetics at the University of Glasgow.  Alison worked in the Regional Genetics Centre at Belfast City Hospital Trust as a Clinical  Scientist  and was involved in mutation analysis, carrier testing and prenatal diagnosis of several common genetic diseases.  During this time she completed  a PhD entitled “Mutation analysis and automated sequencing of the CFTR gene” at the Queen’s University of Belfast.

In 1998, Dr Hill took up post as the Head of DNA Sequencing Service where she was involved in the development  of an in-house sequencing service for laboratories in the Wellcome Trust Building and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Dundee.

Later, Dr Hill moved to the Cancer Research UK Cell Structure Research Group, headed by  Professor Birgit Lane, at Dundee University.  The main focus of her research there was in the analysis of keratin mutations that cause human skin disorders, and in particular  a group of patients who had classical symptoms of epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EBS) but who did not carry K5 or K14 mutations. 

Alison is  particularily interested in using small interfering RNA (siRNA) to knockdown keratin expression at the protein level in keratinocytes and has recently joined the McLean lab to develop this further as a gene therapy system for EBS. 

Selected Publications:

1. Owens DW, Wilson NJ, Hill AJM et al., (2004) "Human keratin 8 mutations that disturb filament assembly observed in inflammatory bowel disease patients." J Cell Sci 117:1989-1999.

2. Graham CA and Hill AJM, (2001) "Fluorescent sequencing for heterozygote mutation detection." Methods Mol Biol 167:193-213.

3. Graham CA and Hill AJM, (2001) "Introduction to DNA sequencing" Methods Mol Biol 167:1-12.