Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
I am a Professor of Renal Medicine and a clinical academic focused on understanding the biology of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in immunity. I am a graduate of the Cambridge MB/PhD programme. My PhD with Prof. Anne Cooke (Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge) examined mechanisms of immunological tolerance mediated by regulatory T cells. I then returned to clinical medicine and trained in renal medicine and general internal medicine before taking up a clinical lectureship at Cambridge. Working with Prof. Ken Smith and Prof. 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. (Thomas et al J. Exp. Med 2017, Thomas et al JACI 2018, Randzavola, Mortimer et al eLife 2022). 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. We are currently working on (i) the role of EROS in T cells and endothelial cells as well as (ii) other novel regulators of ROS generation. While at Imperial College (2019-2023), I 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 (Barnes et al Nature Medicine 2023). Working with collaborators at Imperial College, I have also worked on the use of multi-omics to predict severity in patients with ESKD (Gisby et al eLife 2021, Gisby et al Nature Communications 2022). 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. My clinical work is in renal medicine and internal medicine, predominantly focused on caring for patients with renal transplants or inflammatory diseases involving the kidneys. I have taught on a variety of courses at both Cambridge and Imperial and was a fellow and director of studies in physiology at Christ's College Cambridge (2008-2019). Links to some of my published work: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tUKghuEAAAAJ&hl=en