Background

Thomas is an experienced Professional in Quality Management Systems and Regulatory Compliance and joined the Burnet Diagnostics Initiative as its Quality Systems Manager.

Prior to his career in Quality Management, Thomas was a Postdoctoral Researcher/Medical Scientist in the field of cancer epigenetics and genetics and has extensive experience in managing academic and commercial research projects.

Appointments

• 2015 – 2017: Honorary Associate, School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Australia
• 2010 – 2012: Honorary Fellow, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Positions

• 2021 – Present: Quality Systems Manager – Burnet Diagnostics Initiative, Burnet Institute, Australia
• 2018 – 2021: Senior Quality Assurance Specialist, National Cancer Screening Register, Telstra Health, Australia
• 2015 – 2018: Quality Manager and Research Associate, Translational Genomics and Epigenomics Laboratory, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Australia
• 2012 – 2015: Senior Medical Development Scientist, Genetic Technologies, Australia
• 2007 – 2012: Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, Molecular Pathology Research and Development, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
• 2005 – 2007: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Neuropathology, University Hospital of Bonn, Germany
• 2003 – 2005: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Genetics/Epigenetics, Saarland University, Germany

Qualifications

• PhD (Biochemistry), University of Bonn, Germany
• MSc (Chemistry), University of Bonn, Germany
• Double Diploma of Quality Auditing and Project Management, The College for Adult Learning, Australia
• Grade of Practitioner (PCQI), Chartered Quality Institute, United Kingdom
• Certified Management Systems Lead Auditor, Exemplar Global, USA

Publications (41)

2018 (1)

• Homologous Recombination DNA Repair Pathway Disruption and Retinoblastoma Protein Loss Are Associated with Exceptional Survival in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer.
  Dale W Garsed, Kathryn Alsop, Sian Fereday, Catherine Emmanuel, Catherine J Kennedy, Dariush Etemadmoghadam, Bo Gao, Val Gebski, Valerie Gares, Elizabeth L Christie, Maartje C A Wouters, Katy Milne, Joshy George, Ann-Marie Patch, Jason Li, Gisela Mir Arnau, Timothy Semple, Sreeja R Gadipally, Yoke-Eng Chiew, Joy Hendley, Thomas Mikeska, Giada V Zapparoli, Kaushalya Amarasinghe, Sean M Grimmond, John V Pearson, Nicola Waddell, Jillian Hung, Colin J R Stewart, Raghwa Sharma, Prue E Allan, Peter F Rambau, Orla McNally, Linda Mileshkin, Anne Hamilton, Sumitra Ananda, Marisa Grossi, Paul A Cohen, Yee C Leung, Robert M Rome, Philip Beale, Penny Blomfield, Michael Friedlander, Alison Brand, Alexander Dobrovic, Martin Kobel, Paul Harnett, Brad H Nelson, David D L Bowtell, Anna deFazio
  Clin Cancer Res. 2018 Feb; 24(3):569-580

2017 (2)

• LRH-1 expression patterns in breast cancer tissues are associated with tumour aggressiveness.
  Jia-Min B Pang, Ramyar Molania, Ashwini Chand, Kevin Knower, Elena A Takano, David J Byrne, Thomas Mikeska, Ewan K A Millar, Cheok Soon Lee, Sandra A O'Toole, Colin Clyne, Kylie L Gorringe, Alexander Dobrovic, Stephen B Fox
  Oncotarget. 2017 Oct; 8(48):83626-83636
• Assessing alternative base substitutions at primer CpG sites to optimise unbiased PCR amplification of methylated sequences.
  Ida L M Candiloro, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic
  Clin Epigenetics. 2017 Apr; 9:31

2016 (2)

• Fc-gamma Receptor Polymorphisms, Cetuximab Therapy, and Survival in the NCIC CTG CO.17 Trial of Colorectal Cancer.
  Geoffrey Liu, Dongsheng Tu, Marcia Lewis, Dangxiao Cheng, Leslie A Sullivan, Zhuo Chen, Eric Morgen, John Simes, Timothy J Price, Niall C Tebbutt, Jeremy D Shapiro, G Mark Jeffery, J Daniel Mellor, Thomas Mikeska, Shakeel Virk, Lois E Shepherd, Derek J Jonker, Christopher J O'Callaghan, John R Zalcberg, Christos S Karapetis, Alexander Dobrovic
  Clin Cancer Res. 2016 May; 22(10):2435-2444
• MethPat: a tool for the analysis and visualisation of complex methylation patterns obtained by massively parallel sequencing.
  Nicholas C Wong, Bernard J Pope, Ida L Candiloro, Darren Korbie, Matt Trau, Stephen Q Wong, Thomas Mikeska, Xinmin Zhang, Mark Pitman, Stefanie Eggers, Stephen R Doyle, Alexander Dobrovic
  BMC Bioinformatics. 2016 Feb; 17:98

2015 (2)

• Exemplary multiplex bisulfite amplicon data used to demonstrate the utility of Methpat.
  Nicholas C Wong, Bernard J Pope, Ida Candiloro, Darren Korbie, Matt Trau, Stephen Q Wong, Thomas Mikeska, Bryce J W van Denderen, Erik W Thompson, Stefanie Eggers, Stephen R Doyle, Alexander Dobrovic
  Gigascience. 2015 Nov; 4:55
• Assessment of DNA methylation profiling and copy number variation as indications of clonal relationship in ipsilateral and contralateral breast cancers to distinguish recurrent breast cancer from a second primary tumour.
  Katie T Huang, Thomas Mikeska, Jason Li, Elena A Takano, Ewan K A Millar, Peter H Graham, Samantha E Boyle, Ian G Campbell, Terence P Speed, Alexander Dobrovic, Stephen B Fox
  BMC Cancer. 2015 Oct; 15:669

2014 (1)

• DNA methylation biomarkers: cancer and beyond.
  Thomas Mikeska, Jeffrey M Craig
  Genes (Basel). 2014 Sep; 5(3):821-864

2013 (2)

• Nonequivalent gene expression and copy number alterations in high-grade serous ovarian cancers with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.
  Joshy George, Kathryn Alsop, Dariush Etemadmoghadam, Heather Hondow, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic, Anna deFazio, Gordon K Smyth, Douglas A Levine, Gillian Mitchell, David D Bowtell
  Clin Cancer Res. 2013 Jul; 19(13):3474-3484
• No evidence for PALB2 methylation in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.
  Thomas Mikeska, Kathryn Alsop, Gillian Mitchell, David Dl Bowtell, Alexander Dobrovic
  J Ovarian Res. 2013 Apr; 6(1):26

2012 (4)

• Silencing of Irf7 pathways in breast cancer cells promotes bone metastasis through immune escape.
  Bradley N Bidwell, Clare Y Slaney, Nimali P Withana, Sam Forster, Yuan Cao, Sherene Loi, Daniel Andrews, Thomas Mikeska, Niamh E Mangan, Shamith A Samarajiwa, Nicole A de Weerd, Jodee Gould, Pedram Argani, Andreas Moller, Mark J Smyth, Robin L Anderson, Paul J Hertzog, Belinda S Parker
  Nat Med. 2012 Aug; 18(8):1224-1231
• No evidence for DNA methylation of the ATM promoter CpG island in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
  Thomas Mikeska, Dennis A Carney, John F Seymour, Alexander Dobrovic
  Leuk Lymphoma. 2012 Jul; 53(7):1420-1422
• RANK (TNFRSF11A) is epigenetically inactivated and induces apoptosis in gliomas.
  Anna von dem Knesebeck, Jorg Felsberg, Anke Waha, Wolfgang Hartmann, Bjorn Scheffler, Martin Glas, Jennifer Hammes, Thomas Mikeska, Pearlly S Yan, Elmar Endl, Matthias Simon, Guido Reifenberger, Torsten Pietsch, Andreas Waha
  Neoplasia. 2012 Jun; 14(6):526-534
• DNA methylation biomarkers in cancer: progress towards clinical implementation.
  Thomas Mikeska, Christoph Bock, Hongdo Do, Alexander Dobrovic
  Expert Rev Mol Diagn. 2012 Jun; 12(5):473-487

2011 (5)

• Aberrant DNA methylation but not mutation of CITED4 is associated with alteration of HIF-regulated genes in breast cancer.
  Katie T Huang, Elena A Takano, Thomas Mikeska, David J Byrne, Alexander Dobrovic, Stephen B Fox
  Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011 Nov; 130(1):319-329
• Closed-tube PCR methods for locus-specific DNA methylation analysis.
  Ida L M Candiloro, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic
  Methods Mol Biol. 2011 Jul; 791:55-71
• Analysing DNA methylation using bisulphite pyrosequencing.
  Thomas Mikeska, Jorg Felsberg, Chelsee A Hewitt, Alexander Dobrovic
  Methods Mol Biol. 2011 Jul; 791:33-53
• p75(NTR) induces apoptosis in medulloblastoma cells.
  Jan Kuchler, Wolfgang Hartmann, Anke Waha, Arend Koch, Elmar Endl, Peter Wurst, Dagmar Kindler, Thomas Mikeska, Andreas Waha, Cynthia G Goodyer, Reinhard Buttner, Karl Schilling, Torsten Pietsch
  Int J Cancer. 2011 Apr; 128(8):1804-1812
• Assessing combined methylation-sensitive high resolution melting and pyrosequencing for the analysis of heterogeneous DNA methylation.
  Ida L M Candiloro, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic
  Epigenetics. 2011 Apr; 6(4):500-507

2010 (4)

• A multiplex endpoint RT-PCR assay for quality assessment of RNA extracted from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues.
  Elena A Takano, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic, David J Byrne, Stephen B Fox
  BMC Biotechnol. 2010 Dec; 10:89
• DNA methylation analysis of the HIF-1alpha prolyl hydroxylase domain genes PHD1, PHD2, PHD3 and the factor inhibiting HIF gene FIH in invasive breast carcinomas.
  Katie T Huang, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic, Stephen B Fox
  Histopathology. 2010 Sep; 57(3):451-460
• The implications of heterogeneous DNA methylation for the accurate quantification of methylation.
  Thomas Mikeska, Ida L M Candiloro, Alexander Dobrovic
  Epigenomics. 2010 Aug; 2(4):561-573
• Epigenetic downregulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase MKP-2 relieves its growth suppressive activity in glioma cells.
  Anke Waha, Jorg Felsberg, Wolfgang Hartmann, Anna von dem Knesebeck, Thomas Mikeska, Stefan Joos, Marietta Wolter, Arend Koch, Pearlly S Yan, Elmar Endl, Otmar D Wiestler, Guido Reifenberger, Torsten Pietsch, Andreas Waha
  Cancer Res. 2010 Feb; 70(4):1689-1699

2009 (6)

• MethMarker: user-friendly design and optimization of gene-specific DNA methylation assays.
  Peter Schuffler, Thomas Mikeska, Andreas Waha, Thomas Lengauer, Christoph Bock
  Genome Biol. 2009 Oct; 10(10):R105
• Selective inhibition of proliferation in colorectal carcinoma cell lines expressing mutant APC or activated B-Raf.
  Hui-Hua Zhang, Francesca Walker, Sara Kiflemariam, Robert H Whitehead, David Williams, Wayne A Phillips, Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic, Antony W Burgess
  Int J Cancer. 2009 Jul; 125(2):297-307
• Aberrant methylation and reduced expression of LHX9 in malignant gliomas of childhood.
  Valentina Vladimirova, Thomas Mikeska, Andreas Waha, Niels Soerensen, Jingying Xu, Patrick C Reynolds, Torsten Pietsch
  Neoplasia. 2009 Jul; 11(7):700-711
• Validation of a primer optimisation matrix to improve the performance of reverse transcription - quantitative real-time PCR assays.
  Thomas Mikeska, Alexander Dobrovic
  BMC Res Notes. 2009 Jun; 2:112
• A systematic search for DNA methyltransferase polymorphisms reveals a rare DNMT3L variant associated with subtelomeric hypomethylation.
  Osman El-Maarri, Michael S Kareta, Thomas Mikeska, Tim Becker, Amalia Diaz-Lacava, Judith Junen, Nicole Nusgen, Frank Behne, Thomas Wienker, Andreas Waha, Johannes Oldenburg, Frederic Chedin
  Hum Mol Genet. 2009 May; 18(10):1755-1768
• Quality control of astrocyte-directed Cre transgenic mice: the benefits of a direct link between loss of gene expression and reporter activation.
  Robert Pascal Requardt, Lech Kaczmarczyk, Pavel Dublin, Anke Wallraff-Beck, Thomas Mikeska, Joachim Degen, Andreas Waha, Christian Steinhauser, Klaus Willecke, Martin Theis
  Glia. 2009 Apr; 57(6):680-692

2008 (3)

• Rapid analysis of heterogeneously methylated DNA using digital methylation-sensitive high resolution melting: application to the CDKN2B (p15) gene.
  Ida L M Candiloro, Thomas Mikeska, Peter Hokland, Alexander Dobrovic
  Epigenetics Chromatin. 2008 Nov; 1(1):7
• In vitro sensitivity testing of minimally passaged and uncultured gliomas with TRAIL and/or chemotherapy drugs.
  D M Ashley, C D Riffkin, M M Lovric, T Mikeska, A Dobrovic, J A Maxwell, H S Friedman, K J Drummond, A H Kaye, H K Gan, T G Johns, C J Hawkins
  Br J Cancer. 2008 Jul; 99(2):294-304
• Sensitive Melting Analysis after Real Time- Methylation Specific PCR (SMART-MSP): high-throughput and probe-free quantitative DNA methylation detection.
  Lasse S Kristensen, Thomas Mikeska, Michael Krypuy, Alexander Dobrovic
  Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 Apr; 36(7):e42

2007 (4)

• SGNE1/7B2 is epigenetically altered and transcriptionally downregulated in human medulloblastomas.
  A Waha, A Koch, W Hartmann, U Milde, J Felsberg, A Hubner, T Mikeska, C G Goodyer, N Sorensen, I Lindberg, O D Wiestler, T Pietsch, A Waha
  Oncogene. 2007 Aug; 26(38):5662-5668
• Epigenetic silencing of the candidate tumor suppressor gene PROX1 in sporadic breast cancer.
  Beatrix Versmold, Jorg Felsberg, Thomas Mikeska, Denise Ehrentraut, Juliane Kohler, Juergen A Hampl, Gabriele Rohn, Dieter Niederacher, Beate Betz, Martin Hellmich, Torsten Pietsch, Rita K Schmutzler, Andreas Waha
  Int J Cancer. 2007 Aug; 121(3):547-554
• Mutations of the Wnt antagonist AXIN2 (Conductin) result in TCF-dependent transcription in medulloblastomas.
  Arend Koch, Aksana Hrychyk, Wolfgang Hartmann, Anke Waha, Thomas Mikeska, Andreas Waha, Ulrich Schuller, Nils Sorensen, Frank Berthold, Cynthia G Goodyer, Otmar D Wiestler, Walter Birchmeier, Jurgen Behrens, Torsten Pietsch
  Int J Cancer. 2007 Jul; 121(2):284-291
• Optimization of quantitative MGMT promoter methylation analysis using pyrosequencing and combined bisulfite restriction analysis.
  Thomas Mikeska, Christoph Bock, Osman El-Maarri, Anika Hubner, Denise Ehrentraut, Johannes Schramm, Jorg Felsberg, Philip Kahl, Reinhard Buttner, Torsten Pietsch, Andreas Waha
  J Mol Diagn. 2007 Jul; 9(3):368-381

2006 (2)

• Oncogenic HRAS suppresses clusterin expression through promoter hypermethylation.
  P Lund, K Weisshaupt, T Mikeska, D Jammas, X Chen, R-J Kuban, U Ungethum, U Krapfenbauer, H-P Herzel, R Schafer, J Walter, C Sers
  Oncogene. 2006 Aug; 25(35):4890-4903
• CpG island methylation in human lymphocytes is highly correlated with DNA sequence, repeats, and predicted DNA structure.
  Christoph Bock, Martina Paulsen, Sascha Tierling, Thomas Mikeska, Thomas Lengauer, Jorn Walter
  PLoS Genet. 2006 Mar; 2(3):e26

2005 (1)

• BiQ Analyzer: visualization and quality control for DNA methylation data from bisulfite sequencing.
  Christoph Bock, Sabine Reither, Thomas Mikeska, Martina Paulsen, Jorn Walter, Thomas Lengauer
  Bioinformatics. 2005 Nov; 21(21):4067-4068

2003 (2)

• Crystal structures of O-acetylated 2-acylamino-2-deoxy-D-galactose derivatives.
  Thomas Mikeska, Martin Nieger, Heidi Mansikkamaki, Jorg Daniels, Thomas Kolter
  Carbohydr Res. 2003 Sep; 338(20):2119-2128
• (4S,5S)-4-[(1R)-1,2-Dihydroxyethyl]-5-tridecyl-1,3-oxazolidin-2-one.
  Peter Sawatzki, Thomas Mikeska, Martin Nieger, Michael Bolte, Thomas Kolter
  Acta Crystallogr C. 2003 May; 59(Pt 5):o225-o227