Thomas Lab
James Thomas, MD
Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Molecular Biology
Phone: 214-456-5095
Fax: 214-456-6446
Email
Dr. James Thomas focuses his work on the investigation of how the host senses and responds to injury and infection on a molecular level.
Advances stemming from research in Drosophila (fruit flies) development and the Human Genome Project uncovered a highly conserved family of mammalian proteins – the toll-like receptors (TLRs) – that detect microbial invasion and tissue injury and trigger local and systemic responses to contain the insult.
These receptors communicate with the cell’s interior, using signaling proteins common to all the TLRs, as well as the interleukin-1 family of receptors. He has worked to inactivate genetically two critical intracellular signaling proteins, IRAK1 and IRAK2, and is studying their function in the innate and adaptive immune response, including the development of sytemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in humans and the acute inflammatory response to infection in murine and in vitro models.