Principal Investigator

Chris H. Hill

Chris is a structural and molecular biologist with a background in X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and RNA biology. He's interested in the regulation of viral gene expression -  particularly in how RNA viruses 'break the rules' when they execute their own genetic code. 

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Tim C. Passchier

Tim is originally from the Netherlands and joins us as a Wellcome-funded postdoctoral research associate with a broad background in structural and molecular virology gained at the Universities of Utrecht, Oxford, and Leeds. In the Hill lab he will be investigating virus-induced ribosomal recoding through structural and molecular approaches.

PhD student

Miguel Aracena Velazquez

Miguel is originally from Bolivia, but has lived most of his life abroad. He has a background in Biochemistry, and industry experience from his time at Oxford Nanopore Technologies. He is very excited to join the Hill Lab to begin his PhD project on investigating the structural and mechanistic basis of translation initiation in enteroviruses. Miguel is supported by the BBSRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership in Mechanistic Biology.  

PhD student

Jemma Betts

Jemma has a background in structural and molecular protein biochemistry. After working at UCL studying the structures of infectious prions, Jemma is very excited to join the Hill lab and begin her PhD, investigating RNA-protein interactions that stimulate programmed ribosomal frameshifting during viral infection. She is enthusiastic to apply her experience with cryo-EM to her PhD project. Jemma is supported by the MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership.  

PhD student

Ella Warren

Ella has a background in protein biochemistry and structural biology. Having completed her Masters degree at the University of York, studying poxviral DNA packaging machinery, she is very excited to join the Hill lab to start her PhD, investigating RNA structural elements in the foot-and-mouth disease virus genome, and the structural and mechanistic basis of their contributions to viral replication. Ella is supported by funding from the Pirbright Institute, the Department of Biology at York, and the school of Physics, Engineering and Technology at York. 

Visiting PhD student

Leon Walther

Leon joined us in 2025 as part of a new collaboration with Joana Faria's group in Biology at York. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Konstanz, Germany, with research experiences in New Zealand, CSSB Hamburg and EMBL Grenoble. There, he discovered his passion for neglected tropical diseases and now aims to use structural insights to advance drug discovery. He focuses on structurally and functionally characterizing key factors involved in monoallelic VSG expression in African trypanosomes.

Visiting Associate 

Lewis Chan

Lewis joined us in 2024/5 to work on ribosomes in collaboration with Sergey Melnikov's group at the University of Newcastle. He uses cryo-electron microscopy to understand how various bacteria preserve their vital machinery such as ribosomes during conditions of stress.

Visiting Associate 

Karla Helena Bueno 

Karla joined us in 2022/23 as part of a collaboration with Sergey Melnikov's group. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Karla has a background in microbiology from her studies at Michigan State University. She earned her PhD from Newcastle University, where she investigates the molecular mechanisms of ribosome hibernation in bacteria.