Hilary is a Senior Staff Scientist in Dr. Trevor Lawley’s Laboratory with expertise in anaerobic microbiology and bacterial genomics. His research has established techniques to culture gut bacteria at scale, enabling more detailed analysis of gut microbiome phenotypes. Hilary currently leads a screening programme to identify therapeutic gut bacteria with anti-pathogen activity.
We have developed techniques to culture the majority of the intestinal microbiota. This provides a valuable resource to understand the underlying biology of these health-promoting bacteria and also to study their role in different diseases. In addition, these bacteria can be used to develop therapeutics to treat diseases associated with the intestinal microbiota.
Hilary’s research has revealed the importance of spore-forming bacteria in the human intestinal microbiota, their ecology and evolution, how they differ functionally from non-spore-forming bacteria and how spore-formation promotes transmission of anaerobic bacteria between individuals.
His current research leverages the large culture collection he and others in the team have developed to identify beneficial gut bacteria with therapeutic potential including anti-pathogen activity.
My timeline
Senior Staff Scientist
Garnham Award recipient from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for outstanding research student completing a doctoral thesis in the area of basic or laboratory science
PhD London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Staff Scientist
Joined Lawley Lab as advanced research assistant
Joined Sanger Institute as Computational Biologist