Colin Hill
Biography
Colin Hill has a Ph.D in molecular microbiology and is Professor of Microbial Food Safety in the School of Microbiology at University College Cork, Ireland. He has been an SFI Principal Investigator since 2002 (renewed in 2006, 2010 and 2015). He is also a Principal Investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland. His main interests are in infectious disease, particularly in defining the mechanisms of virulence of foodborne pathogens and in developing strategies to prevent and limit the consequences of microbial infections in the gastrointestinal tract. He has published more than 580 peer-reviewed papers and holds 20 patents in this area (Scopus H factor of 100, Google H factor of 129). In 2005 Prof. Hill was awarded a D.Sc by the National University of Ireland in recognition of his contributions to research. In 2009 he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy, the highest honour for an Irish academic. In 2010 he was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology and together with his colleagues Prof. Gerald Fitzgerald, Prof. Paul Ross and Dr Catherine Stanton he was awarded the Metchnikoff Prize in Microbiology. He served as President of ISAPP (International Scientific Association for Prebiotics and Probiotics) from 2012 to 2015.
Research Interests
Theme: Microbes to Molecules
SDG: SDG 3 - Good Health and Wellbeing will be addressed, by harnessing the health benefits of the microbiome by the action of bacteriophages and probiotics.
Research key words: Shaping the microbiome with bacteriophages and probiotics; Microbiome, Gut, health, Molecular Microbiology, particularly in issues involving infection. Bacteriophages, Bacteriocins (applied and fundamental aspects), Pharmabiotics (bioactives in gut health), Clostridium difficile, antibiotic resistant pathogens. Main interests are in infectious disease, particularly in defining the mechanisms of virulence of foodborne pathogens and in developing strategies to prevent and limit the consequences of microbial infections in the gastrointestinal tract. Interested in the role of bacteriocins and bacteriophages as agents to limit the growth of bacteria in food or in the human gut.