Dr. Thomas is an immunologist, drug developer with more than 20 years of experience in academia, large pharmaceutical companies and biotech across diverse therapeutic areas.
She is currently a venture partner at Samsara Biocapital and an independent board director for Chinook Therapeutics and Ventus Therapeutics. She was the Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Equillium, a San Diego based biotech and the Chief Medical Officer of Principia Biopharma which was acquired by Sanofi September 2020 for 3.7 billion.
Prior to Principia, Dr. Thomas was Vice President and Global Head of Translational Medicine for Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease at Roche where her team was instrumental for the approval of Xofluza; Vice President of Clinical Development and Clinical Immunophenotyping at Pfizer and Vice President and Chief Development Officer of the Biosimilars Research and Development Unit at Pfizer that resulted in the registrational approval of 4 biosimilar assets across oncology and immunology. Dr. Thomas began her industry career at Bristol-Myers Squibb as Director of Global Clinical Development in Immunology, where she was involved in the registrational approval of the immunomodulatory drug, belatacept and the life cycle management of abatacept. Dr. Thomas started her career as a tenured track faculty member at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Nephrology and Transplantation Medicine. She was the medical director of the Islet Cell Transplantation Program where she performed 5 islet cell transplants in 3 patients and