Professor David Thomas

Biography & Education

About Professor David Thomas

I am Professor of Renal Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a renal consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals. I am a graduate of the Cambridge MB/PhD programme. My clinical work is focused on caring for patients with renal transplants or autoimmune diseases. My laboratory is focused on understanding the biology of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in immunity. Prior to taking up my current role I led a research group at Imperial College and was a consultant at the Hammersmith Hospital.

Research Interests

Working with Professor Ken Smith and Professor Gordon Dougan, I characterised the novel protein EROS and showed that it is a highly selective chaperone protein that is essential for the generation of reactive oxygen species and, therefore, host immunity. We also demonstrated that EROS-deficiency is the basis of a novel human inborn error of immunity and the molecular mechanism by which EROS works. EROS also controls the levels of some other proteins, including P2X7, which has numerous roles in both innate and adaptive immunity. This work was funded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship and the Beit Prize.

I have also worked on Covid-19 focusing on understanding the pathogenesis of disease in patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD). I was a co-principal investigator on the OCTAVE and OCTAVE-DUO trials, which examine vaccine responses in immunosuppressed patients.

Working with collaborators at Imperial College, I have also worked on the use of multiomics to predict severity in patients with ESKD. This includes the observation that, of 7000 serum proteins, the best predictor of disease outcome is the serum level of the alternative SARS-CoV-2 receptor, LRRC15. This work was funded by the MRC.

GMC Number

6139191

NHS Base

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust