Chris Hillier is Professor of Physiology at Glasgow Caledonian University, and Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Biopta Ltd, a contract research organization specialising in tests and instruments using human tissue for drug screening. He developed the initial innovative technology that underpins Biopta's product pipeline and has published and presented extensively on a range of clinical research interests including heart failure, diabetes and limb ischemia. In the words of the UK national newspaper, the Guardian, he has “received just about every award or grant (for innovation and enterprise that) Scotland has to offer, including a Proof of Concept Award, a Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, a John Logie Baird Award for Innovation, Scottish Executive SMART and SPUR Awards; and Scottish Co-Investment Funding. In 2007, following an invitation to work in the US as Visiting Professor with Integrated DNA Technologies, the world's largest suppliers of nucleic acids, he founded Sistemic Ltd, a new start-up developing unique RNA-based assays for drug screening.