David Thomas

Current role

Director of the Centre for Molecular Oncology at the University of New South Wales; National Health and Medical Research Council Principal Research Fellow; Chief Strategy and Science Officer, Omico.  

Expertise

Prof. Thomas founded Omico, a Federally-funded national precision oncology platform which focuses on using genomics to develop biomarker-dependent clinical trials infrastructure, and genetically stratified risk management. Omico has enabled more than 25,000 Australians with advanced cancer to access genomic profiling, and matched targeted therapies. He led the first international study of denosumab in Giant Cell Tumor of bone, leading to FDA, EMA and TGA approval of this agent for the management of this disorder. He also co-led a meta-analysis of whole-body MRI screening for patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, changing clinical practice guidelines from the NCCN, AACR and EviQ in Australia. He was the lead applicant for the recent listing on the MBS of WBMRI for this indication. He also founded the Australasian Sarcoma Study Group, which has enrolled over 1,000 patients onto research studies since 2008, and provided over $1.1M of funding through 18 grants to young researchers. He founded and leads the International Sarcoma Kindred Study, the largest ever conducted study of genetic factors in sarcoma, now recruiting from 23 centres in the US, UK, France, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia. He has held leadership positions within leading international oncology organisations, including serving as President of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society in 2018 and as Scientific Co-Chair of the ESMO Sarcoma and Rare Cancers Congress 2026. He has published over 300 papers, including first or last author papers in Science, Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, JAMA Oncology, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Communications. His work has been cited more than 15,000 times, with an H-index of 61 (Web of Science).