50 Cities

Graham Hughes trained at the London Hospital and later spent two years in New York working on the introduction of the DNA-binding test under the leadership of Dr Charles Christian. In 1972 he opened the lupus clinic at Hammersmith Hospital, later moving to St. Thomas' Hospital where he set up the Louise Coote Lupus Unit, a specialist unit dealing uniquely with lupus and related diseases. He instituted an annual postgraduate meeting ‘Ten Topics in Rheumatology’, now in its 40th year with satellite ‘Ten Topics’ meetings in six countries. In 1983, he described the anti-phospholipid syndrome now known as Hughes syndrome, and in 1992 was awarded the ILAR (world research) prize for this work. Dr Hughes is co-founder and editor of the international journal ‘LUPUS’. Other honours include Doctor Honoris Causa in the universities of Marseille and Barcelona, and ‘Master’ of the American College of Rheumatology. In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Hamdan Award for medical research, given by Sheikh Hamdan, ruler of Dubai. Dr Hughes is mostly known for his work with patients and is Life President of the Patients’ charity, Lupus UK.