Thomas is responsible for open innovation initiatives and drug discovery activities within the Global Health Institute focusing primarily on next generation of drugs for Malaria and Schistosomiasis.

Before joining Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Thomas worked with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) in the discovery team on the early stages of the pipeline from compound screening to candidate selection. Also Thomas led the open source Malaria Box and Pathogen Box initiatives designed to catalyze drug discovery research in neglected diseases.

Thomas holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the Universities of Strasbourg (France) and Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany). In 2009, he was appointed as a Post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University (USA) where he contributed to the total synthesis of the mycolactones and the development towards the point-of-care diagnosis of Buruli ulcer, a neglected necrotizing skin disease.  He authored and co-authored over 30-peer-reviewed articles and is a co-inventor on several patents.