He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Roger Goody (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Germany) focusing on protein-ligand interactions.

In 2001, he moved to the laboratory of Nikola Pavletich (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA) to complete his training in X-ray crystallography.

He was appointed as full professor at EPFL’s School of Life Sciences in 2023 where he holds the Paternot Chair in Interdisciplinary Cancer Research and aims to fast-track progress in translational oncology.

The laboratory of Nicolas Thomä investigates the structure and function of macromolecular machines that control genome stability, gene expression and DNA repair.

His laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes biochemistry and cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) combined with genomics, imaging, and chemical-biology techniques.