Susan Napier Thomas

Susan Napier Thomas is a Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, holding the Woodruff Professorship. She leads the Thomas Lab, focusing on bioengineering, immunotherapy, and mechanobiology. Her research integrates mechanics, biomaterials, and immunology to combat cancer through targeted drug delivery and tumor immunity studies. Dr. Thomas earned her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (2008) and a B.S. from UCLA (2003). She joined Georgia Tech in 2011 after a postdoctoral fellowship at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, specializing in cancer immunotherapy and lymphatic transport.

Her work explores how mechanical forces influence tumor progression and immune suppression, with a focus on developing immunotherapeutics such as nanoparticles for lymph node targeting. Key research areas include:

• Biological transport phenomena in cancer metastasis
• Lymphatic system’s role in immune regulation
• Engineered biomaterials for immunomodulation
• Systems biology approaches to tumor immunity

Dr. Thomas has received prestigious awards, including the Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award (2013) and Woodruff Professorship (2019). Her lab develops microfluidic systems to study cell adhesion dynamics and evaluates tumor-derived molecular clearance. Recent efforts target vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) signaling to enhance immunotherapy efficacy in pancreatic cancer.

Publications highlight innovations in lymph node-targeted drug delivery, hydrogel engineering, and CAR T cell screening. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges bioengineering, immunology, and oncology to advance therapeutic strategies against immune-regulated diseases.