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HowardThomas

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Howard Thomas received his medical degree with honours, from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England in 1969. He received his PhD from Glasgow University in 1974 for his work on ‘Oral tolerance to protein antigens’. He then studied hepatology under Dame Sheila Sherlock first as Lecturer, then Reader and finally Professor of Medicine.

In 1987 he was appointed Chairman of Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, which subsequently became Imperial College School of Medicine (ISCM).

Professor Thomas is currently Head of the Department of Medicine A and Vice Chairman of the Division of Medicine at ICSM. He is also Director of the hepatology Section.

In 2000 Professor Thomas was appointed Chairman of the British Government’s Advisory Group on Hepatitis and subsequently, Chairman of the Hepatitis C Strategy Group. He is on the Council of the Royal College of Physicians. He has been President of both the British and European Associations for the Study of the Liver. He is Vice-President of the British Liver Trust.

Professor Thomas’s research has focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of virus induced liver disease and cancer including:

• Molecular basis of HBe antigen negative viraemia (Carman et al, Lancet 1989 9;2(8663):588-91).
• Molecular basis of HBV vaccine escape variants (Carman et al, Lancet 1990 11;336(8711):325-9).
• Host genetic factors influencing outcome of hepatitis B and C infection (Thursz et al, N Engl J Med 1995 20;332(16):1065-9; Thursz et al Lancet 1999).
• HCV induced changes in brain (Forton et al, Lancet 2001 358(9275):38-9).
• Increasing incidence of cholangiocarcinoma in UK (Taylor-Robinson, Gut 2001 48(6):754-5).

Professor Thomas is Editor of the Journal of Viral Hepatitis and of the textbook Viral Hepatitis. He has published over 400 papers in the field of liver disease.