Zoë Williams is passionate about the (sex-specific) influence of lifestyle factors, such as exercise, on mental health and the biological mechanism(s) behind these interactions; she is especially fascinated with the microbiota-gut-brain axis and the immune system as mechanistic pathways behind the action of lifestyle factors, but, more generally, interested in multi-system interactions within the body.

Zoë Williams did her BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience and Mental health at Carleton University, Canada, where she explored sex differences in voluntary wheel running on behaviour and the microbiota-immune-brain-axis in mice in the lab of Professor Marie-Claude Audet. Zoë is now a 4th year PhD student in Anatomy and Neuroscience at UCC (and APC microbiome Ireland), supervised by Professor John Cryan, Dr. Sarah Nicolas, and Professor Yvonne Nolan. Her thesis is titled “Investigation of the benefits of exercise in Alzheimer’s disease: focus on the microbiota-gut-brain axis”.