Phil Thomas, MD, is a native of South Dakota who was trained in chemical engineering at Columbia University, biochemistry at the University of South Dakota, and molecular and structural biology at Johns Hopkins University. He has a  35-year-long interest in the molecular basis of disease that started when he was a research technician working on lysosomal storage disorders at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His graduate studies concentrated on ion homeostasis: in particular, metabolically relevant changes of intracellular pH in various intracellular compartments in hepatocytes in response to mitogenic signals. His postdoctoral work addressed structure-function relationships of the proton driven ATP synthase and CFTR. In his independent laboratory over the past 26 years he has focused on utilizing biochemical and biophysical approaches, understanding aberrant protein folding, and regulation of protein expression as a basis of disease, in particular CF.