Zoe Hughes
Vice President Biology & Translational Medicine Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals
Zoë Hughes, PhD has a wealth of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Zoë began their career as a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford in 1997. Zoë then moved to GlaxoSmithKline in 1998, where they held positions as a Senior Scientist and Principal Research Scientist. In 2004, they joined Pfizer as an Associate Research Fellow, and held a variety of leadership roles, including Group Leader, Psychiatry & Behavioral Disorders, Microdialysis Group Leader, and Principal Research Scientist. Zoë was responsible for moving the lead asset into Ph2 studies in PTSD and has written contributions to multiple IND and Investigator Brochure regulatory submissions. In 2018, they became Senior Director at Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc., and most recently, in 2021, they were appointed VP, Head of Biology at Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals.
Zoë Hughes, PhD, began their educational journey at the University of Bristol, where they earned a BSc in Pharmacology between 1991 and 1994. Zoë then continued their studies at UCL, where they obtained a PhD in Psychopharmacology between 1994 and 1997.
Seminars
- What emerging preclinical and clinical data reveal about ketamine induced synaptic plasticity as a unifying mechanism for rapid antidepressant effects
- The role of ketamine metabolites, including HNKs, in disentangling efficacy from dissociation and informing more targeted drug design
- Progress toward non dissociative and next generation ketamine derived therapies, and how these may reshape safety, scalability, and patient access
- Lessons from S-ketamine on regulatory pathways, payer expectations, and commercial adoption; and what this means for the broader psychedelic and rapid acting psychiatry landscape
