Prof. Hill Gaston MA (Oxon) PhD (Bristol) BM BCh FRCP FMedSci, is Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology. He read medicine at Lincoln College, Oxford and undertook general medical training in London and Bristol. His research training began in Bristol as a CRC Fellow, and postdoctoral training at Stanford with an MRC travelling fellowship. He returned to the UK to the Department of Rheumatology in Birmingham where he was Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow and honorary consultant, before moving to Cambridge in 1995 as the foundation professor of rheumatology. His research interests have been in the immunological mechanisms of inflammatory arthritis, particularly spondyloarthritis, and interactions between infection and the immune system.

Recent interests have included cytokine production by dendritic cells and the influence of the cellular stress response on this, the interaction between intracellular bacteria and the cytokine response, and the properties of both pro-inflammatory Th17 lymphocytes and their regulatory counterparts in rheumatic disease. He is currently chair of the Research Committee of the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research and serves on the Versus Arthritis clinical research panel, and continues to review grant applications for major funders and manuscripts for immunology and rheumatology journals.

Prof Gaston is married to a retired G.P., has two grown-up children, and four grandchildren. Interests outside work include science and faith issues (Trustee of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, music (listening, not making), the north Norfolk coast, reading and travel.