Rory Hills

I am a scientist who is passionate about interdisciplinary research that has the potential to benefit people’s lives. I received a BSc (Honours) in Biochemistry in my hometown at the University of Victoria in BC, Canada. While pursuing this degree, I helped establish the federally funded Substance Drug Checking Project which uses analytical chemistry to determine the composition of street drugs. This was part of an effort to mitigate the harms of the ongoing opioid overdose crisis. I also expressed and characterized novel proteins from the human gut microbiota that have potential applications in seaweed biofuel generation.

I am currently a Rhodes Scholar pursuing a DPhil in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford (St. John’s College) supervised by Mark Howarth and co-supervised by Alain Townsend. Since September 2022 I have also been a visiting student in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). My research focuses on using synthetic biology and protein engineering to develop new vaccine technologies that can provide effective protection against a broad range of pathogens. In this role, I have led the development of a vaccine candidate that elicits potent neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 and several evolutionarily related coronaviruses in pre-clinical models. I have also contributed to vaccine candidates against influenza, rhinovirus, mpox, and other poxviruses using a multivalent protein display system.