Prof. David Thomas is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Molecular Oncology at the University of New South Wales, and Head of the Genomic Cancer Medicine Laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He is also CEO of Omico, a not-for-profit company he established to lead a national precision medicine program for patients with rare and early onset cancers.  

As a clinician-scientist, his focus is on the application of genomic technologies to the understanding and management of cancer, particularly sarcoma. Prof. Thomas founded the Australasian Sarcoma Study Group, a national research organisation, and established Australia’s leading adolescent and young adult cancer unit at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. 

Prof. Thomas 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 led the first international study of denosumab in Giant Cell Tumor of bone, leading to FDA and TGA approval. 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 has over 200 research publications, including lead or senior author papers in Science, Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. In 2018, he was President of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, the peak international body in his field.