Chris Wilson is a senior researcher in the Department of Biology, with expertise in evolution, infectious disease and genomics. His work explores how animals evolve to resist pathogens, with a focus on bdelloid rotifers: microscopic animals that have acquired thousands of genes from bacteria, fungi and other organisms. He combines genomics with experimental work on these animals and the little-studied pathogens that naturally infect them.

Chris led the discovery that bdelloid rotifers deploy horizontally acquired genes against fungal pathogens, revealing an unusual potential source of new antifungal chemistry. He now leads the scientific and translational development of this research within the Oxford Martin Programme on Safer Antifungals. The work builds on fundamental evolutionary studies supported by NERC, and translational funding from BBSRC.

He trained at Oxford (BA) and Cornell University (PhD), and held research fellowships at Imperial College London before rejoining the University of Oxford in 2019. More recently, Chris has worked with the Saïd Business School and ZERO Institute to explore how discoveries from overlooked areas of biology can be progressed through venture and industry-partnership routes.