University Hospitals of Leicester
Leicester, UK
Mervyn Thomas, PhD, FRCOphth is a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) academic clinician based at the University Hospitals of Leicester. Dr. Thomas completed his medical training at the University of Leicester in 2013 simultaneously graduating from both his medical degree (MBChB) and a PhD. He subsequently joined the highly competitive NIHR Integrated Academic Training pathway for clinicians. In 2018, he was appointed as a NIHR clinical lecturer in both ophthalmology and genomic medicine. He has been continuously funded by NIHR for the last 8 years. Dr. Thomas’ research focuses on foveal development and nystagmus. He developed a foveal hypoplasia grading system which aids diagnosis, classification and predicts future vision in young children and infants with foveal hypoplasia. He established the foveal development investigators group (FDIG) investigating genotype-phenotype associations in foveal hypoplasia. In the UK, he is part of the Genomics England Clinical Interpretations Partnership (GeCIP), the UK Biobank Eye and Vision Consortium and is a scientific advisor for Nystagmus Network. Recently, within the Nystagmus UK Eye (NUKE) research group, he contributed to developing clinical guidelines for nystagmus. His work has been funded by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Academy of Medical Sciences, NIHR and Fight for Sight (UK).