Heidi T. Hillier

I am a PhD candidate at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, working with protein structure and function. My supervisor is Associate Professor Ingar Leiros, at the institute of chemistry. Our group is part of the NorStruct platform, with a long-standing history of working with cold-adapted microorganisms (and proteins) from arctic samples and protein structure determination by x-ray crystallography. 

My PhD project aims to characterize the structure and function of enzymes in the metabolic ectoine biosynthesis pathway, by the means of recombinant expression and protein x-ray crystallography. Ectoine, the final product in the pathway, is an industrially interesting metabolite produce predominantly by bacteria as a protectant (osmolyte) against environmental stress.

I have a background in biological sciences, from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), and a master’s degree in Biochemistry from Uppsala University (UU). I did my masters project in the group professor Mikael Widersten; studying regio- and stereoselectivity in an alcohol dehydrogenase, by directed evolution through semi-rational design.