Biography

Craig J. Thomas, Ph.D., is the leader of chemistry technologies experts in NCATS’ Division of Preclinical Innovation. He joined NIH in 2003 as director of the chemical biology core at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. In 2007, he moved to the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), which was supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute. (The activities of the former NCGC now are supported by NCATS through its Early Translation Branch.)

Thomas is an adjunct member of the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biology Laboratory and an adjunct associate professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and the Temple University School of Medicine. Thomas is an editor of Current Protocols in Chemical Biology and a member of the SciFinder (Chemical Abstracts Service) advisory board. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, is an inventor on more than 15 patents and has given numerous invited lectures.

Thomas earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Indianapolis and his doctorate from Syracuse University. Subsequently, he completed his postdoctoral work in the laboratories of Sidney Hecht, where he earned a fellowship through the American Cancer Society.

Research Topics

Thomas uses high-throughput technologies to make novel discoveries at the interface of chemistry and biology. His interests include the production of novel screening libraries, the development of biologically active small molecules, the association of phenotype to pharmacology, the phenotypic screening of mechanistically annotated small molecule libraries, the development of novel drug combinations, and the progression of agents into advanced preclinical and clinical studies.