Dr. Deborah Gill

Biography

Deborah Gill is a Professor of Gene Medicine and Co-Director of the Gene Medicine Research Group at the Nuffield Division of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. She completed her PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of Warwick, where she studied cell division proteins in E. coli and discovered defining bacterial members of the ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) superfamily proteins. Afterward, she moved to the University of Oxford to undertake post-doctoral research at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, focusing on human ABC proteins related to Multi-Drug Resistance, including P-glycoprotein and CFTR, which is responsible for Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Deborah's research now emphasizes the potential of gene therapy for genetic diseases, particularly in developing treatments for Cystic Fibrosis lung disease, resulting in multiple clinical trials demonstrating proof of principle for CF gene therapy. As a founding member of the UK Respiratory Gene Therapy Consortium, her research team is focused on developing new viral and non-viral vectors for the treatment of lung diseases and translating new lung gene therapies into clinical practice. Currently, her work targets rare lung diseases such as Surfactant Protein Deficiency, which causes severe respiratory distress in babies, including lethal deficiencies of surfactant protein B and ABCA3 proteins.

Research Interests