Rate My Professor Natalie Hughes

Professor Natalie Hughes is a pharmaceutical scientist and Professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Otago, within the Faculty of Health Professional Programmes in the Health Sciences Division. She earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a PhD from the University of Otago, completing her doctoral thesis titled "Controlled delivery of Chlorhexidine for the treatment of periodontal diseases" in 1995. While pursuing her PhD, she worked as a clinical tutor at the University of Otago and Dunedin Hospital. After her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Kansas on anti-cancer drugs before returning to the University of Otago as faculty. She progressed through the academic ranks and was promoted to full Professor in 2022. In her current role as Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programmes) for the School of Pharmacy, she teaches pharmaceutical sciences and has contributed to the launch of the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree in 2022, aimed at students pursuing pharmaceutical industry careers.

Professor Hughes specializes in drug delivery, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutical analysis, medicine formulation, and protein analysis. Her research focuses on formulation science, including improved drug delivery for neonates, new treatments for mental health and pain, and topical wound healing treatments for dentistry. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams of lab scientists, clinicians, and commercial partners to develop innovative healthcare products. She presented her Inaugural Professorial Lecture highlighting her contributions to these areas. Notable awards include the University of Otago 2017 translational research grant for severe pain treatment research and the Best Collaboration Award in the 2019 Health Research Excellence Awards for a neonatal drug administration trial. Her work has garnered over 3,100 citations on Google Scholar. Key publications encompass "Ketamine for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder" (2024), "Perinatal psychotropic dispensing: A descriptive population-based study in New Zealand" (2023), "A Sensitive Assay for Unbound Docetaxel Using Ultrafiltration" (2024), "Chitosan-Based Nanoencapsulation of Mānuka Oil for Therapeutic Applications" (2025), and contributions to ketamine and allopregnanolone studies.