He obtained his doctorate in 2006 in the laboratory of the Swiss Nobel Prize winner Kurt Wüthrich on methods of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

He conducted postdoctoral research with Gerhard Wagner at Harvard Medical School in Boston and with Beat Meier at ETH Zurich.

[2] Sebastian Hiller uses NMR spectroscopy to investigate the structure and function of proteins, their interactions and underlying molecular mechanisms.

By investigating the biophysical principles of molecular chaperone function, he was recently able to show how the state of α-synuclein in living cells is regulated, which plays a key role in the development of Parkinson's disease.

By elucidating the natural compound darobactin's mode of action, his research serves as a basis for the rational design of new antibiotics, to help fight the world-wide antimicrobial resistance crisis.