Thomas Hill

I graduated from Western University (Canada) with a BSc (Hons) in Biology, after spending a year at the University of Ottawa. Subsequently, I obtained an MSc in Biomedical and Molecular Sciences Research from King’s College London where my research focused on the role of short-chain free fatty acid receptors, FFAR2 and FFAR3, in the regulation of insulin secretion, under the supervision of Professor Shanta Persaud. I then continued my PhD at King’s College London working with Professor Peter Jones and Dr James Bowe where I investigated the role of Kisspeptin/GPR54 on islet β-cell function during pregnancy.

From October 2018, I shall be working at the University of Oxford as a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellow, where I will have the opportunity to work with Professor Dame Frances Ashcroft and Professor Patrik Rorsman at DPAG and OCDEM. My new area of study will be to assess the regulation of islet δ-cell secretion in health and disease. Using a Cre-Lox transgenic model to silence somatostatin secretion from the δ-cells of mouse islets, I will determine the role of locally-derived somatostatin on insulin and glucagon release. This project will build on my past experience of working with transgenic animal models with respect to investigating paracrine changes within the islets of Langerhans through measurements of integrated islet function both in vitro and in vivo. I hope to use this experience to identify novel mechanisms that can increase insulin release through modulation of the paracrine environment within the islets.