Dr Eric Hill, Loughborough University

Dr Eric Hill was appointed as a Reader at Loughborough university in 2023 after spending 8 years developing his laboratory at Aston University.

Dr Hill received his Ph.D in Cell and molecular biology in 2004 investigating the secretion of Leukaemia Inhibitory factor in polarised cells.

In 2005 Dr Hill became a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Aston developing 3D neuronal models for developmental neurotoxicity testing. Gaining experience in 3D neuronal culture, RNA analysis and confocal microscopy Dr Hill developed his research in Stem cell biology and in vitro neuronal model systems. In 2009 Dr Hill was awarded a Tenure tracked research fellowship to develop human in vitro models of Alzheimer’s disease during which time he developed his interest in viral transduction methods to develop optogenetics, and calcium imaging methods in induced pluripotent stem cells. He was appointed a lectureship at Aston University in 2014 and promoted to Senior lecturer in 2018 and Reader in 2022.

He is currently engaged in developing tissue engineered stem cell derived models of the CNS in an attempt to study complex cellular interactions that occur in development and disease.

My main research interests include the development of tissue engineering strategies to model stem cell behaviour in the development of neuronal networks and also during neurodegeneration.

I undertake a multi-disciplinary, approach to accelerate the development of methods to produce and characterise of human neuronal cells for medicines development. A major aim of my research is to use human cells to create disease models in a dish for subsequent drug discovery.

Drawing on my expertise I have applied human neuronal and astrocytic cells to identify key physiological processes observed in vivo and in order to model how they become dysregulated in disease states. The physiological relevance of these model systems has been strengthened by demonstrating that the physiological interactions between human neuronal cells can be investigated in vitro and used as a platform for modelling disease.

The main areas in which I work are:

Induced pluripotent stem cells
Neuronal cell culture
Neuronal tissue engineering
Optogenetics
Alzheimer’s disease
Neuron-Astrocyte metabolic dysfunction

Chair of Equality Diversity Inclusion committee, lifETIME Centre for doctoral training EPSRC-SFI Joint Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineered Tissues for Discovery, Industry and Medicine.

Coordinator of the Midlands Alzheimer’s Research UK network.

Butcher, JB, Sims, RE, Ngum, NM, Bazzari, AH, Jenkins, SI, King, M, Hill, EJ, Nagel, DA, Fox, K, Parri, HR & Glazewski, S 2022, 'A requirement for astrocyte IP 3 R2 signaling for whisker experience-dependent depression and homeostatic upregulation in the mouse barrel cortex', Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, vol. 16, 905285, pp. 905285. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2022.905285

Elsworthy, RJ, Crowe, JA, King, MC, Dunleavy, C, Fisher, E, Ludlam, A, Parri, HR, Hill, EJ & Aldred, S 2022, 'The effect of citalopram treatment on amyloid-β precursor protein processing and oxidative stress in human hNSC-derived neurons', Translational psychiatry, vol. 12, no. 1, 285. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-022-02050-5

Hsu, C.-C., George, J.H., Waller, S., Besnard, C., Nagel, D.A., Hill, E.J., Coleman, M.D., Korsunsky, A.M., Cui, Z., Ye, H. Increased connectivity of hiPSC-derived neural networks in multiphase granular hydrogel scaffolds, 2 022, Bioactive Materials, 9, 358,372, 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.07.008,

Iordachescu, A., Hughes, E.A.B., Joseph, S., Hill, E.J., Grover, L.M., Metcalfe, A.D. Trabecular bone organoids: a micron-scale ‘humanised’ prototype designed to study the effects of microgravity and degeneration, 2021, npj Microgravity, 7,1,17, 1,10.1038/s41526-021-00146-8, stem cells, 2018, Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, AUG,590, 28,10.3389/fnins.2018.00590,

Sokolovski, S.G., Crowe, J.A., Nagel, D., Hill, E.J., El-Tamer, A., Koroleva, A.V., Parri, R., Chichkov, B.N., Rafailov, E.U. Printing brain in vitro at 3D scaffolds: Materials and patterns,2018, "Proceedings - International Conference Laser Optics 2018, ICLO 2018", 8435527,504 ,2,10.1109/LO.2018.8435527,

Arif, M., Kitchen, P., Conner, M.T., Hill, E.J., Nagel, D., Bill, R.M., Dunmore, S.J., Armesilla, A.L., Gross, S., Carmichael, A.R., Conner, A.C., Brown, J.E. "Downregulation of aquaporin 3 inhibits cellular proliferation, migration and invasion in the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line", 2018, Oncology Letters,16, 1, 713, 720, 20, 10.3892/ol.2018.8759,

Rana, K.S., Pararasa, C., Afzal, I., Nagel, D.A., Hill, E.J., Bailey, C.J., Griffiths, H.R., Kyrou, I., Randeva, H.S., Bellary, S., Brown, J.E. Plasma irisin is elevated in type 2 diabetes and is associated with increased E-selectin levels, 2017, Cardiovascular Diabetology,16,1,147, 24,10.1186/s12933-017-0627-2,

Karikari, T.K., Turner, A., Stass, R., Lee, L.C.Y., Wilson, B., Nagel, D.A., Hill, E.J., Moffat, K.G. Expression and purification of tau protein and its frontotemporal dementia variants using a cleavable histidine tag, 2017, Protein Expression and Purification, 130, 44, 54, 16, 10.1016/j.pep.2016.09.009,

Monteiro, M.C., Coleman, M.D., Hill, E.J., Prediger, R.D., Maia, C.S.F. Neuroprotection in Neurodegenerative Disease: From Basic Science to Clinical Applications, 2017, Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2017, 2949102 ,5, 10.1155/2017/2949102,

Hill, E., Nagel, D., Parri, R., Coleman, M. Stem cell-derived astrocytes: are they physiologically credible? 2016, Journal of Physiology, 594, 22, 6595, 6606, 12,10.1113/JP270658,

Tarczyluk, M.A., Nagel, D.A., Rhein Parri, H., Tse, E.H.Y., Brown, J.E., Coleman, M.D., Hill, E.J. Amyloid β 1-42 induces hypometabolism in human stem cell-derived neuron and astrocyte networks, 2015, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism,35,8, 1348, 1357, 17, 10.1038/jcbfm.2015.58,

Woehrling, E.K., Parri, H.R., Tse, E.H.Y., Hill, E.J., Maidment, I.D., Fox, G.C., Coleman, M.D. A predictive in vitro model of the impact of drugs with anticholinergic properties on human neuronal and astrocytic systems, 2015, PLoS ONE,10,3, e0118786, 6, 10.1371/journal.pone.0118786,

Nagel, D.A., Hill, E.J., O'Neil, J., Mireur, A., Coleman, M.D.,The effects of the fungicides fenhexamid and myclobutanil on SH-SY5Y and U-251 MG human cell lines, 2014, Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 38,3, 968, 976,4,10.1016/j.etap.2014.09.005, IF 3.292, systems,2010, Neurotoxicity Research, 17, 2, 103,113,13,10.1007/s12640-009-9084-3,

Hill, E.J., Vernallis, A.B. Polarized secretion of leukemia inhibitory factor, 2008, BMC Cell Biology, 9, 53, 3,10.1186/1471-2121-9-53,

Hill, E.J., Woehrling, E.K., Prince, M., Coleman, M.D., Differentiating human NT2/D1 neurospheres as a versatile in vitro 3D model system for developmental neurotoxicity testing, 2008, Toxicology,249,02-Mar, 243, 250, 42, 10.1016/j.tox.2008.05.014,

Woehrling, E.K., Hill, E.J., Coleman, M.D. "Development of a neurotoxicity test-system, using human post-mitotic, astrocytic and neuronal cell lines in co-culture", 2007, Toxicology in Vitro, 21, 7, 1241, 1246, 24,10.1016/j.tiv.2007.04.011,