Thompson earned a B.S. in Pharmacy (1987) from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in Toxicology (1997) from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Thompson's research interests are directed at the identification of novel prevention and treatment modalities for cancer. In pursuit of these interests, cell-based drug discovery platforms have been developed to screen chemical libraries for action against the androgen receptor as an established target for prostate cancer. This research led to the development of the Multi-functional Androgen Receptor Screening (MARS) assay to identify drugs that either inhibit or activate the androgen receptor. High-throughput assays have also been developed to assess action of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor as an emerging therapeutic target. More recently, drugs that alter autophagic pathways are under investigation as autophagy is recognized as important in cancer progression. Pharmacogenomic considerations are integrated with the development of novel cancer prevention and therapeutic modalities to strengthen the translation of agents identified in the Thompson laboratory toward innovative clinical studies.