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Biography
George Thomas, PhD, joined the University of Cincinnati in 2005. He is the interim director at the Genome Research Institute, deputy director of the UC Cancer Center and holds the John and Gladys Strauss Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.
Thomas is recognized for his groundbreaking studies in the purification and cloning of the cell-signaling molecules, S6K1 and S6K2. He elucidated the role of these kinases in cell growth and is responsible for the identification of the upstream regulatory components that control their activity, including the TSC1/TSC2 suppressor complex. Recently, he has focused on the role that this pathway plays in the regulation of appetite and energy balance, and the pathogenesis of metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance and diabetes.
Thomas received his bachelor's from UC San Diego and his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He then moved to the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland as a fellow of the European Molecular Biology Organization. He was appointed to the faculty of the Friedrich Miescher Institute, and was promoted to senior group leader in 1983.
Thomas has received many professional appointments and awards. He was the United States representative to the Human Frontier Science Program Organization, serving on the Review Committee for Research Grants in Molecular Biology. He has been an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 1992. He was the head of a task force to establish the Basel Biology Center and New Research Institute of Diseases of the Aging, and an elected member to the Swiss Cancer league.
In 1995, Thomas was awarded the Max Cloëtta Prize for Medical Research. He is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Novartis Oncology and The Genetics Company.
