Dr. Ana Žugić was born on June 10^th, 1983 in Belgrade, where she graduated from elementary school, high school and the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Belgrade. In 2016, at the same Faculty, at the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Cosmetology, she defended her doctoral dissertation entitled " Extract of the talus of Usnea barbata (L.) Weber ex F.H. Wigg., Parmeliaceae in the emulsion vehicles stabilized with biodegradable emulsifiers: preformulation and formulation investigations", thus earning the title of Doctor of Medical Sciences - Pharmacy.

Since December 2008, she has been employed in the Department for Pharmaceutical Research and Development of the Institute For Medicinal Plant Research "Dr. Josif Pančić", and in 2022 she was elected to the position of Senior Research Associate.

She is the author or co-author of over 60 publications, including several patents. So far, she has participated in 5 national and 4 international projects, as well as a number of internal projects of the Institute for Institute For Medicinal Plant Research "Dr. Josif Pančić".

In her scientific research, Dr. Ana Žugić focused on the research of medicinal plants primarily in the context of incorporating medicinal plant preparations into various pharmaceutical and cosmetic forms. Her research included chemical characterization and biological activities of the medicinal plants, optimization of the extraction procedure and, dominantly, the development of various dietary and cosmetic products with plant isolates as active substances, as well as their reformulations. Although Dr. Žugić studied mostly cutaneous products, she was the leader or the participant in the development of dietary supplements for per os application from the production program of the Institute For Medicinal Plant Research "Dr. Josif Pančić". In recent years, she has broadened her scientific interest to the research of novel carriers (nano and microparticles) for active substances of natural origin/isolates of medicinal plants. Currently, she is the mentor of one doctoral dissertation, while she has been a member of several commissions for the defense of master theses and doctoral dissertations. She is a representative of the Institute For Medicinal Plant Research "Dr. Josif Pančić in the Group of Manufacturers of Cosmetic Products at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

She was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for three-month research stay at the Eberhard-Karls Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology of the University of Tübingen, Germany in 2012. The patent-protected invention "Pharmaceutical composition based on medicinal plants for use in human and veterinary medicine", co-authored by Dr. Ana Žugić, won a silver medal with the image of Nikola Tesla at the international exhibition "Invention Belgrade 2012".

She speaks English and German language.