Thomas is a pioneer in the field of using human and patient tissue in vitro to reduce and replace animal studies, to enable predictive and fast research, advance personalized safety assesment and improve human predictability.

Thomas is a Professor of Toxicology / Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Basel. He holds several professional board certifications in Europe and the U.S., and was appointed as International Advisor of the Chinese Society of Toxicology for three consecutive terms.

Thomas previously led Roche’s global Pharmaceutical Sciences/Non Clinical Safety organisation within pRED (Pharma Research and Early Development) for 19 years. He retired from Roche end of 2020. Before he served in various senior positions in the Non-clinical safety departments at Novartis, Basel, Switzerland (1989-1998; pre-1997: Sandoz Pharma AG) and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma KG, (1998-2002)