Dr. Thomas’s research focuses on the role of biological transport phenomena in physiological and pathophysiological processes. Her laboratory specializes in incorporating mechanics with cell engineering, biochemistry, biomaterials, and immunology in order to 1) elucidate the role mechanical forces play in regulating seemingly unrelated aspects of tumor progression such as metastasis and immune suppression as well as 2) develop novel immunotherapeutics to treat cancer.
Cancer progression is tightly linked to the ability of malignant cells to exploit the immune system to promote survival. Insight into immune function can therefore be gained from understanding how tumors exploit immunity. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Thomas aims to develop a novel systems-oriented framework to quantitatively analyze immune function in cancer. This multifaceted methodology to study tumor immunity will not only contribute to fundamental questions regarding how to harness immune response, but will also pave the way for novel engineering approaches to treat cancer such as with vaccines and cell- or molecular-based therapies.
Thomas joined Georgia Tech in November 2011 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to this appointment, she was a Whitaker postdoctoral scholar at École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Lausanne) developing nanomaterials for cancer immunotherapy and studying the role of lymphatic transport in immunity. Thomas received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University while working in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department where she studied the role of fluid flow in regulating blood-borne metastasis and identified novel biomarkers for the detection of metastatic colon cancers.
BMES, an international professional organization representing more than 3,000 bioengineers and biomedical engineers, is the lead society for the accreditation of bioengineering and biomedical engineering departments in the United States. The BMES Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award is awarded annually in recognition of a high level of originality and ingenuity in biomedical research by a young investigator.
The award is named for Rita Schaffer, to honor the BMES former executive director, who passed away in 1998 and left her estate to BMES.
