Bobby Thomas, PhD, has been an associate professor in the Departments of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Neurology at the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, since May 2012. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease, with special emphasis on mitochondrial dysfunction and stress signaling cascades involving oxidative stress and neuroinflammation in toxin and genetic models of Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Thomas received his masters in zoology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and his PhD from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (Jadavpur University), Kolkata, India, where he studied the role of nitric oxide and hydroxyl radicals in MPTP-neurotoxicity. Subsequently he joined the laboratory of Dr. Ted Dawson at Johns Hopkins University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2002, where he investigated gene-environment interaction in familial pre-clinical models of Parkinson's disease. Prior to joining the Medical College of Georgia, Dr. Thomas was an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York from 2008-2012. Among the honors and awards Dr. Thomas received is the prestigious Börje Uvnäs Award for best research in the field of autacoids and biogenic amines and research awards from NIH/NINDS.