Thomas Kane Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology - I am working on various projects in vision science with fellows at my previous full time workplace the UCL IoO. My role primarily consists of developing software to support the team in their research projects into vision science and gene therapy, whilst also inputting to the strategy of the projects. I am in discussion advising them on the feasibility of their research aims, and then designing, programming, and implementing the software to achieve these outcomes. I have developed multiple pieces of software that are currently in use on my own. I mostly work in Python, using specialist libraries such as OpenCV, DeepLabCut, PIL, Shapely, PsychoPy, as well as the more standard maths and data science ones. I also have some experience in Rust.See my Github for more information on these projects - https://github.com/thomasmichaelkaneMeiraGTx - The development of novel functional tests to assess ocular function for use in clinical trials, now used in a worldwide phase 3 gene therapy clinical trial, and subsequent to this, utilised as a consultant by the pharmaceutical company looking to employ these tests. My main role as a consultant is leading team training sessions for health professionals in hospitals to perform this new assessment at sites around the world. I am using my experience with this test to best prepare others to perform the test to the standard required for high quality scientific measurements of any improvement in vision that results from this trial. I have gained invaluable experience teaching, and working with people from different countries and cultures.

London

This was an honorary contract to allow me full hospital access in conjunction with my employment at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology - please see the description in that section for my experience in this role.

London, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

I worked for over five years as a research scientist at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, and carrying out a large proportion of my role in the world leading Moorfields Eye Hospital. Our team, headed by Prof. Michel Michaelides and Prof. James Bainbridge, was running clinical trials for novel gene therapy treatments for people with rare inherited retinal diseases. These diseases are the most common form of blindness in the working age population. My work within this team spanned an array of disciplines. I saw research patients on a daily basis, and performed a variety of ophthalmological tests with them, including Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT), visual field testing, colour vision tests to name just a few. A large proportion of the patients I saw were children which has helped me develop excellent skills working with kids of all ages in a challenging setting; we have even performed some of the tests on infants between 0-4 years of age. I had a leading role in the development of two new functional assessments for ocular clinical trials, which has led to my further work with MeiraGTx and other hospital sites. My main area of expertise however, was knowing every aspect of our Adaptive Optics Scanning Light Ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). It is a state of the art ophthalmoscope that allows in vivo imaging of cells in the retina. I operated, maintained, and calibrated the device, processed and analysed the images, and also developed new software to help us better interpret this novel data. In 2021 we built an entirely new AOSLO from scratch with Prof. Alf Dubra, professor of optics at Stanford, the designer of the system. Whilst working with the vast amount of data that we collect, I became very proficient in Python and Matlab, especially in a scientific context. I also was a named author in 19 publications produced by our lab, have a first authorship in Ophthalmic Genetics, and presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting 2019

London, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

I worked as a part time personal assistant, whilst at university and since, for a young person with cerebral palsy, helping him in his day to day life; this gave me an excellent insight into the daily obstacles an individual with a disability faces. I participated closely in his campaign for disability rights, supporting him in giving interviews/speaking at international conferences, including the UN General Assembly 2016 and World Humanitarian Summit 2015, campaigning for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. I also supported him in other projects in Istanbul, New York, and Rwanda promoting the rights of children with disabilities around the world.

London, United Kingdom

Since graduating from UCL, I remained in close ties with my department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, assisting in different research projects, exploring types of image processing and computer vision techniques in order to write a program to be used in medical applications, securing me an introduction into software engineering and knowledge of MATLAB programming.

London, United Kingdom

I have recently gained a position in a further project at UCL, assisting with research into educational methods such as peer assessment of group work. This is a multidisciplinary area of research, involving cooperation between all departments within the faculty of engineering. After interviewing staff and running student focus groups across UCL, as well as discussing current literature on the subject, I presented the findings at the UCL IoE Teaching and Learning Conference 2016.

Medical Physics Msci, Medical Physics And Bioengineering

Activities and Societies: Canoe Polo, Mountaineering Club, Film Society

Education record