Rate My Professor Jennifer Hill

Assistant Professor Jennifer Hill holds the Marvin H. Caruthers Endowed Chair for Early-Career Faculty in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder, joining the faculty in spring 2024. Her academic journey began with a B.S. in Biology from Humboldt State University in 2010, during which she investigated the genetic diversity of bacterial extremophiles in volcanic acid hot springs. Hill then completed a post-baccalaureate California Institute of Regenerative Medicine fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco from 2010 to 2011 in Didier Stainier’s laboratory, studying pancreatic beta-cell regeneration in zebrafish. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 2017 in Karen Guillemin’s laboratory, discovering a novel bacterial protein that induces zebrafish beta-cell proliferation. From 2018 to 2024, Hill conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Utah under the co-mentorship of June Round and Charlie Murtaugh, examining microbe-driven beta-cell development in mice.

The Hill Lab focuses on microbiome science, investigating how gut microbes interface with the pancreas to influence postnatal development, organ function, and disease susceptibility. Using gnotobiotic mouse models, her research elucidates the contributions of early-life microbiota to insulin-producing beta-cell maturation and expansion, aiming to develop therapeutics for pancreatic diseases like diabetes. Key publications include “Intestinal fungal-host interactions in promoting and protecting against pancreatic tumorigenesis” (Cell Host & Microbe, 2024) and “From bugs to β cells” (Science, 2022). Hill has received the 2022 NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize for innovative microbiota research impacting human health and the 2025 Boettcher Investigator Award, a $250,000 grant supporting early-career biomedical research.