Shirley Y. Hill, PhD

Dr. Shirley Hill is Professor of Psychiatry, University Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Professor of Psychology and Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hill’s research has focused on substance use disorders (SUD) with emphasis on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that may promote transmission of SUD across generations. She has been a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Substance Use Disorders, a member of a National Academy of Science panel studying potential vaccines against substance use disorders, and a frequent research consultant to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the German government (DFG) as a research grant reviewer. She developed one of the first three generation studies of families with multiple cases of alcohol use disorder, and enrolled children from these families for longitudinal follow-up that now spans childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. Research is currently planned for follow-up in middle adulthood. She has completed genome-wide analyses of these families using exome sequencing. Her most recent work has focused on pre-conception effects of alcohol use that may confer increased expression of genes associated with development of AUD and related SUD and health outcomes. In-depth analysis of this third generation using multimodal inquiry (e.g., assessment of psychopathology, event-related potentials, MRI) has enabled the study of childhood adversity and its impact on stress pathway genes that may lead to disadvantaged health outcomes