Jack Thompson
Dr Jack Thompson is a Clinical Research Training Fellow based at Queen Mary University of London and collaborating with Hammersmith Medicines Research Ltd. He aims to better understand the applications of metabolomics to early phase clinical trials and more specifically to understand the pharmacometabolomic signatures that relate to cardiovascular health.
When did your Fellowship start and how long will it last?
This medicines development fellowship is a three-year PhD programme starting in October 2025.
What were you doing prior to your Fellowship.
I was a specialist registrar (St6) in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics as well as General Internal Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Why did you choose this Fellowship Programme?
This fellowship offered a unique opportunity to combine my interests in precision medicine with early phase clinical trials while learning from field leaders across industry and academia.
What is the aim of your research?
Metabolomics is the large-scale study of small molecules in a biological sample. By comparing metabolomic signatures before and after introduction of a medicine, you can understand the effects of a drug on a molecular level.
Fewer than 1 in 10 drugs make it through the 10 to 15 years of drug development which costs $1-2 billion. Phase III trials constitute 60% of clinical trial costs with half of experimental drugs failing at this hurdle. As such, there is increasing recognition of the importance of using biomarkers in early phase clinical trials to act as surrogates for efficacy and toxicity outcomes.
Metabolomics offers a unique way to identify pharmacological biomarkers for predicting drug efficacy and toxicity, aiding in critical ‘Go/No-Go’ decisions for advancing drugs to later trials. It also provides insights into biochemical pathways, revealing potential new drug targets and helping with drug repurposing.
My PhD aims to better understand these applications of metabolomics to early phase clinical trials. More specifically to understand the pharmacometabolomic signatures that relate to cardiovascular health.
What inspired you to look at this field?
An intercalated BSc in Pharmacology at the University of Bristol followed by a MSc in Genomic Medicine at Imperial college London sparked my interest in how Omics technologies can be used to understand how and why individuals respond differently to drugs. My clinical training has focused on reducing cardiovascular risk through hypertension, bariatric, and lipid clinics. While working in HIV at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, I observed firsthand how antiretrovirals can adversely impact cardiovascular health with metabolic syndrome 1.5 times more common in those living with HIV. Supported by my supervisors, I began investigating how Omics approaches, including metabolomics, could be used to understand the mechanisms by which drugs contribute to cardiovascular disease risk.
Which industry partner are you working with and how will they support you in achieving your goals? What will your partner gain from working with you?
Hammersmith Medicines Research (HMR) is the UK’s largest early-phase clinical trials unit and among the biggest in Europe. Renowned internationally, HMR conducts around 30 trials annually across diverse clinical areas providing an excellent resource to study pharmacometabolomics and cardiovascular risk from differing perspectives. HMR’s extensive expertise from protocol design to publication will provide me with a holistic education across early phase clinical trials. I’d hope to be able to contribute to the conduct of their trials in my role as research doctor.
Why did you choose Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) as your higher education institution partner?
During my Academic Foundation Programme at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, I was introduced to QMUL’s William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI), a world-leading centre for cardiovascular pharmacology, where I was first inspired to specialise in clinical pharmacology. A few years later, I was welcomed into a WHRI research team led by the dynamic Dr Emma Magavern, who is advancing equitable implementation of pharmacogenomics in the UK and Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, who has led the 100,000 Genomes Project and co-created the National Genomic Test Directory. Their kind support has enabled me to pursue this medicines development fellowship. Beyond WHRI, QMUL also hosts the Precision Healthcare University Research Institute (PHURI), directed by Professor Claudia Langenberg, which provides excellent opportunities to learn from field leaders in multi-omic research.
What do you plan to do when have completed your Fellowship?
I’d seek a post-doctoral role such as clinician scientist to allow me to develop themes from this PhD while completing my clinical training.