About
Dr Alison Hill is a postdoctoral fellow within the Controlled Human Challenge Group (CHIG) at the University of Southampton. Her research focuses on understanding the immunological mechanisms that confer protection against upper respiratory tract pathobiont colonisation, with the ultimate aim of informing next-generation vaccine design. A critical component of her research involves the development and use of immunological assays to assess adaptive cellular immune responses in controlled human infection models (CHIMs). These include models for two human-adapted bacterial species that colonise the upper respiratory tract: (i) Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, and (ii) Neisseria lactamica, a commensal species of the nasopharynx that protects against infection and disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Controlled Human Infection
- Vaccines
- T cells
- Bordetella pertussis
- Neisseria lactamica
Current research
Dr Hill’s research focuses on understanding the immunological mechanisms that confer protection against upper respiratory tract pathobiont colonisation, with the ultimate aim of informing next-generation vaccine design. A critical component of her research involves the development and use of immunological assays to assess adaptive cellular immune responses in controlled human infection models (CHIMs). Current CHIMS on which Dr Hill’s work centres include:
1) Controlled human challenge model of aysmptomatic Bordetella pertussis infection
Whooping cough is a severe respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis, epidemics of which continue to emerge globally despite high vaccination rates. Whilst current vaccines are protective against disease, they do not prevent infection and transmission, which may contribute to continued circulation and epidemic peaks. Controlled human infection is a pertinent technique to identify people who are relatively protected against experimental infection. Dr Hill’s research aims to identify immunological biomarkers of protection in the context of controlled human infection and novel vaccine-challenge trials.
2) Controlled human challenge model of Neisseria lactamica infection
Neisseria lactamica, is a commensal species of the nasopharynx that protects against infection and disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis. Dr Hill’s research aims to understand the immunological mechanisms that underpin this protection, by examining cross-reactive responses in the N. lactamica human challenge model.
3) Controlled human challenge model of genetically-modified (GM) Neisseria lactamica infection
As a commensal species of the nasopharynx, genetic-modification of N. lactamica has the potential to be used for the delivery of vaccine antigens (e.g. N. meningitidis antigens) directly to the mucosal surface. Dr Hill’s research aims to detect and characterise immunological responses to heterologous antigens in the GM N. lactamica controlled human infection model, with the aim to assess feasibility as a novel vaccine antigen delivery system
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
A list of your current and past PhD students.
This section will only display on your public profile if content has been added.
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
A short description of your teaching interests and responsibilities.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
These are the public-facing activities you’d like people to know about.
This section will only display on your public profile if you’ve added content.
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Dr Alison Hill is a postdoctoral fellow within the Controlled Human Challenge Group (CHIG) at the University of Southampton.
She gained her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Warwick, with a year in industry at the then-Health Protection Agency (now UKHSA) in Porton Down. She went on to do her PhD at the University of Southampton, studying in vitro modelling of the airway epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit in asthma. In 2017 she joined the Controlled Human Infection Group (CHIG) at the University of Southampton, where she has developed cutting edge methodologies to detect and enumerate low frequency antigen-specific adaptive immune responses in the context of controlled human infection. These advances have enabled new insights into the mechanisms that protect humans against infection, and led to multiple publications in high impact journals (e.g. Science Translational Medicine, The Lancet Microbe, The Journal of Clinical Investigation and Clinical Infectious Diseases). Recently, she has delivered a principal component of a novel Phase 2b vaccine trial, and deconvoluted the mechanism by which this live attenuated vaccine confers protection against infection. Her aspiration is to direct these, and subsequent advances, to improve rational vaccine design.
Prizes
- British Association for Lung Research travel award (2016)
- Outstanding commendation for poster presentation at the Southampton Faculty of Medicine Research Conference (2015)
- European Respiratory Society travel award (2015)
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.