Thomas’ ultimate goal is to identify early disease pathways and network changes that can be modulated by interventions to prevent or treat diseases, and to support the development of novel intervention strategies to prevent or treat diseases.

Thomas focuses on developing innovative analytical tools and strategies for metabolomics-driven systems biology and pharmacology in personalized health strategies. 

His research aims to improve sample preparation using multi-dimensional chromatographic and electroextraction separation methods, improve the interface to mass spectrometry, miniaturize analytical methods using micro/nanotechnology and develop high-throughput metabolomics methods.

He has established the Biomedical Metabolomics Facility Leiden, and is Scientific Director of the Netherlands Metabolomics Centre and co-founder of MIMETAS, the worldwide first organ-on-a-chip company.