Levin Thomas

I have a bachelor's degree in pharmacy and a master's degree in Pharmacy Practice. My academic journey over the past 6.5 years has been defined by a passionate pursuit of exploring pharmacogenomics. My research has been deeply driven by a passion for understanding how genetic variability influences drug response and improving personalized medicine strategies, primarily in tuberculosis (TB) and cancer. I have a doctoral degree (completed on January 4, 2025) in pharmacogenomic research from Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, India. My thesis, titled “Integrating pharmacogenomics and population pharmacokinetic analysis for precision therapy of isoniazid in TB patients” focused on assessing the frequency of the NAT2 (primary enzyme involved in isoniazid drug metabolism) gene polymorphisms among TB patients, correlating the clinical, demographic, and genetic profile to the liver function profile, and using them as a covariate to build an isoniazid population pharmacokinetic model for the first time in Indian TB patients. These investigations provided critical insights into the genetic predisposition of TB patients to antitubercular drug-induced liver injury (AT-DILI) and established a significant association between NAT2 slow acetylator status and elevated liver function test (LFT) values during the early intensive phase of antitubercular therapy (ATT). Apart from TB, I have worked on a few other pharmacogenomic-based cancer research projects during my PhD tenure. I also have a 5-year of experience (2013-2018) of teaching pharmacy practice to undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students, before joining for a full-time PhD.