Rate My Professor Sebastian Hiller

Professor Sebastian Hiller serves as Full Professor at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel since 2022, following his tenure as Associate Professor from 2015 to 2022 and SNSF Professor from 2010 to 2015 at the same institution. His academic journey includes postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Gerhard Wagner at Harvard Medical School from 2007 to 2009 and with Prof. Beat Meier at ETH Zurich from 2009 to 2010. Hiller obtained his PhD in the group of Nobel laureate Prof. Kurt Wüthrich at ETH Zurich between 2002 and 2006. He completed undergraduate studies in interdisciplinary sciences at ETH Zurich and the University of Cambridge from 1997 to 2002, and earned a Certificate of Higher Teaching in Physics at ETH Zurich from 1999 to 2007. A German and Swiss national, Hiller holds ORCID 0000-0002-6709-4684.

Hiller's research group specializes in structural biology and biophysics, utilizing solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and complementary methods to elucidate the atomic-resolution structures, dynamics, and functions of proteins and their interaction partners. Central themes encompass the principles of chaperone function through analysis of chaperone-client complexes implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease; the biogenesis of bacterial outer membrane proteins, including mechanisms of the insertase BamA and development of antibiotics such as darobactin and OMPTA; and the conformational dynamics of kinases regulated by second messengers in bacteria alongside interactions in the mammalian TOR complex governing cell growth. The group has produced landmark publications including "Structure of the NINJ1 filament" (Nature, 2023), "Mode of action of darobactin" (Nature, 2021), "Activation of translation in eukaryotes" (Molecular Cell, 2021), "Interaction of molecular chaperones with α-synuclein" (Nature, 2020), and highly cited works such as "GSDMD membrane pore formation constitutes the mechanism of pyroptotic cell death" (EMBO Journal, 2016), "A new antibiotic selectively kills Gram-negative pathogens" (Nature, 2019), and "Solution structure of the integral human membrane protein VDAC-1 in detergent micelles" (Science, 2008). Hiller has garnered prestigious accolades, including the 2018 ICMRBS Founder’s Medal for pioneering NMR applications in protein structure and function, the 2014 EMBO Young Investigator award, the 2011 ERC Starting Grant, the 2010 SNSF Professorship, and the 2008 SNSF Scholarship for young researchers. He is listed among the world’s most highly cited researchers.