John Thomas, PhD

Research Focus

John M. Thomas III, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the UTRGV School of Medicine in the Department of Human Genetics.

Dr. Thomas began working with RNA viruses in 1999 and earned his doctorate degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, where he constructed and characterized replication-competent viral vectors as vaccine platforms against anthrax and plague, and studied the immunopathogenesis of viral and bacterial select agents in animal models of infection. Following completion of his postdoctoral training at the CDC and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he studied the pathology of hemorrhagic fever viruses, he served as a lead scientist for vaccine development in the private sector for three years.

Dr. Thomas joined the UTRGV School of Medicine Faculty in 2014, and his research has focused on understanding Zika virus pathogenesis using the laboratory opossum and molecular surveillance of arboviral and rickettsial disease transmission in south Texas. He has served as PI or co-PI with grants funded from the CDC and the NIH since 2016 and currently serves as the laboratory director for a newly-formed CLIA-certified diagnostic laboratory [South Texas Human Genomics] in Brownsville, Texas, with a focus on whole genome sequencing (WGS) as a tool for understanding microbial pathogenesis.