B.S.
University of California, Los Angeles
1994
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Faculty
Faculty
Michael A Thomas
Assistant Professor
Department/Office
- Biology
School/College
- College of Arts & Sciences
Biography
Michael Thomas, PhD, is a virologist by training with research interests in cancer biology and vaccine design and development. His career trajectory began when he attended Wake Forest University to earn his PhD in Cancer Biology with the hopes of advancing to a career in the biotechnology industry. During graduate school Dr. Thomas became excited about the prospect of developing his own research ideas in academia and running his own lab. This led him to a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Marjorie Robert-Guroff at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). His pursuit of academia led Dr. Thomas to compete for and obtain a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study virus hostcell interactions that potentially influence transgene immunogenicity. Dr. Thomas highlighted his K99-R00 award as making him competitive for faculty positions, since he was competing with assistant professors coming in with their own grants. He also gained advice from a variety of mentors: one with a recent K99 award, another with over 30 years of experience in academia, as well as other collaborators. All of these individuals connected him to many invaluable resources. As an assistant professor, Dr. Thomas in the process of establishing his new laboratory and looks forward to establishing a long-term research program, and writing multiple papers and grants, including an R01. For postdocs that are interested in academic positions, Dr. Thomas advises that you start the process early and engage with mentorship meaningful to your path.
Education & Expertise
Education
Ph.D.
Wake Forest University
2007
Postdoctoral Fellow
IBRI, Vaccine Branch, NCI, NIH
2011-2015
Expertise
Virus-Host Interaction
Vaccine Design and Development
Cancer Biology and Therapeutics
Academics
Academics
Virology (BIOL/BIOG421)
Molecular Biology (BIOL320)
Research
Research
Specialty
Virus-Host InteractionFunding
NIH K99/R00 AI Effective Replicating Adenovirus-HIV Vaccines 2017-2019 Pathway to Independence Awards (K99/R00) -Grant Number: 1K99AI114379 -2014-207
Group Information
HIV Vaccine Design and Development: Viruses are the most abundant entities in this biosphere. While largely known for their disruptive potential and the heavy toll they can take on human health, viruses can also be used as instruments to improve health. A research focus in the Thomas lab centers on providing a better understanding of virus-host cell interactions that influence the immune responses generated against replicating adenovirus vectors and inserted HIV-transgenes. Our objective is to use this understanding to design and develop an effective HIV vaccine. Cancer Biology and Therapeutics: Adenovirus perturbs many of the pathways active in the development of cancer. These interactions support an additional research focus of our lab that enables us to 1) gain a better understanding of key events that occurs in cancer and 2) further understand how adenovirus causes disease (pathogenesis). We are also interested in exploring ways in which we can apply the lessons learned from our HIV vaccine studies to other endeavors, such as the creation of a therapeutic cancer vaccines. Research Opportunities: Students in the Thomas lab will have the opportunity to acquire and develop skills in advanced immunology, molecular virology, cellular biology and other areas of biomedical research. Most of the studies are translated from cells to mice to nonhuman primates and, we hope, eventually to humans.
Related Articles
Beyond Oncolytics: E1B55K-Deleted Adenovirus as a Vaccine Delivery Vector.
Thomas MA, Nyanhete T, Tuero I, Venzon D, Robert-Guroff M. Beyond Oncolytics: E1B55K-Deleted Adenovirus as a Vaccine Delivery Vector. PLoS One. 2016 Jul 8;11(7):e0158505. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158505. eCollection 2016.
HIV-1 CD4-induced (CD4i) gp120 epitope vaccines promote B and T-cell responses that contribute to reduced viral loads in rhesus macaques
Thomas, M.A., Tuero, I., Demberg, T., Vargas-Inchaustegui, D.A., Musich, T., Xiao, P., Venzon, D., Labranche, C., Montefiori, D.C., DiPasquale, J., Reed, S.G., DeVico, A., Fouts, T., Lewis, G.K., Gallo, R.C., and Robert-Guroff, M.: HIV-1 CD4-induced (CD4i) gp120 epitope vaccines promote B and T-cell responses that contribute to reduced viral loads in rhesus macaques. Virology, 471-473: 81-92, 2014. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2014.10.001
Rhesus macaque rectal and duodenal tissues exhibit B-cell sub-populations distinct from peripheral blood ...
Thomas, M.A., Thorsten Demberg, Diego A. Vargas-Inchaustegui, Peng Xiao, Iskra Tuero, David Venzon, Deborah Weiss, James Treece, and Marjorie Robert-Guroff: Rhesus macaque rectal and duodenal tissues exhibit B-cell sub-populations distinct from peripheral blood that continuously secrete antigen-specific IgA in short-term explant cultures. Vaccine, 32: 872-80, 2014.
Effects of the deletion of early region 4 (E4) open reading frame 1 (orf1), orf1-2, orf1-3 and orf1-4 on virus-host...
Thomas, M.A., Song, R., Demberg, T., Vargas-Inchaustegui, D.A., Venzon D., and Robert-Guroff, M.: Effects of the deletion of early region 4 (E4) open reading frame 1 (orf1), orf1-2, orf1-3 and orf1-4 on virus-host cell interaction, transgene expression, and immunogenicity of replicating adenovirus HIV vaccine vectors. PLoS ONE 8(10): e76344. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076344, 2013
Replicating adenovirus-SIV recombinant priming and envelope protein boosting elicits localized
Xiao, P., Patterson, L.J., Kuate, S., Brocca-Cofano, E., Thomas, M.A., Venzon, D., Zhao, J., DiPasquale, J., Fenizia, C., Lee, E.M., Kalisz, I., Kalyanaraman, V.S., Pal, R., Montefiori, D., Keele, B.F., and Robert-Guroff, M.: Replicating adenovirus-SIV recombinant priming and envelope protein boosting elicits localized, mucosal IgA immunity in rhesus macaques correlated with delayed acquisition following a repeated low dose rectal SIVmac251 challenge. J. Virol., 86: 4644-4657, 2012.
Low dose penile SIVmac251 exposure of rhesus macaques infected with adenovirus type 5 (Ad5)
Qureshi, H., Ma, Z.M., Huang, Y., Hodge, G., Thomas, M.A., DiPasquale, J., DeSilva, V., Fritts, L., Bett, A.J., Casimiro, D., Shiver, J.W., Robert-Guroff, M., Robertson, M.N., McChesney, M.B., Gilbert, P.B., and Miller, C.J.: Low dose penile SIVmac251 exposure of rhesus macaques infected with adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) and then immunized with a replication defective Ad5-based SIV gag/pol/nef vaccine recapitulates the results of the Phase IIb Step trial of a similar HIV-1 vaccine. J.Virol., 86: 2239-2250, 2012.
E4orf1 limits the oncolytic potential of the E1B-55K-deleted adenovirus.
Thomas, M.A., Broughton, R.S., Goodrum, F.D., and Ornelles, D. A.: E4orf1 limits the oncolytic potential of the E1B-55K-deleted adenovirus. J. Virol., 83: 2406-2416, 2009.