Group Members / Ryan Hili

Ryan Hili was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. He performed research in nitrene transfer chemistry under the supervision of Professor Andrei K. Yudin at the University of Toronto and graduated with an Honours B.Sc. in Biological Chemistry in 2005. Ryan later pursued graduate studies in the Yudin group at Toronto, focusing on the synthesis and application of a novel class of stable unprotected amino aldehydes. After earning his Ph.D. in 2010, Ryan joined the research group of Professor David. R. Liu at Harvard University as a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. At Harvard he developed strategies to translate DNA into synthetic polymers ammenable to evolution. In 2013, Ryan became Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The University of Georgia. He moved his labs to York University in 2017, where he is currently a York Research chair in Molecular Evolution and Associate Professor of Chemistry. He has been the recipient of the Melanie O’Neill Young Investigator Award in Biological Chemistry (2023), Faculty of Science Early Career Researcher Award (2020), Petro Canada Young Innovator Award (2018), Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018), and the Thieme Chemistry Award (2017). His lab is currently focused on developing tools for epitranscriptomic research, DNA-encoded library research for small-molecule drug disocvery, and the evolution of synthetic biopolymers for applications in therapeutics and diagnostics.