Johnny Tam

My research is focused on analysing human speech to find new insights into various neurological diseases. My PhD project focuses on motor neuron disease (MND), which is a fatal and progressive disease that damages nerve cells. It causes muscle weakness, speech slurring, swallowing difficulties and in some cases memory and thinking issues as well.

The goal of my research is to create new digital tools that can use speech to help deliver earlier diagnosis and monitor the progression of disease more sensitively.

Digital devices such as smartphones and computers have become a part of everyday life. This inspired us to create a research smartphone app that records people’s voices, so that our patients living with MND can participate in research more easily from home.

A blending of interests

In secondary school I chose to study medicine because I was excited about a career that combines rigorous science and communication with people from all walks of life. During medical school, I became interested in medical research and spent a summer working in a research lab. I loved the meticulousness and detail-oriented nature of scientific research, but ‘wet’ lab work never really clicked with me.

My PhD project is the perfect fit, combining medicine and research with my personal interests. I enjoy tinkering with computers at home and I’ve always been interested in sound, music and the voice. I’ve sung in choirs and played in bands since I was little.

Involving patients in our work

Interacting with our patients and their carers is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work. Their enthusiasm and commitment to help and contribute their time and personal information really motivates me to keep doing what I’m doing.

We have tried our best to build in patient and public involvement and engagement into every aspect of our research. We actively involve patients and their carers, not just participating in, but also in designing, planning and changing research studies.

Involving patients has changed the way we think about our projects. It has helped our studies to become better designed, made it easier for people to access information and made it easier for them to participate.

Applying for the MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship

I heard about the fellowship from my PhD supervisors who encouraged me to apply. I was drawn to apply because of the prestige of having institutional support from the Medical Research Council (MRC). This also opens up numerous opportunities like training, networking, and the chance to take part in the MRC Max Perutz Award.

Winning the video category of the MRC Max Perutz Award last year was a career highlight for me. The video was made possible by a wonderful collaboration with our patient advisory group member Steve Barrett OBE, who lent his voice for the narration.

Having Steve and his wife Fiona at the award ceremony, and sharing the joy and success with our patients, made it one of the most memorable days in my research career. It was made even better by Scotland qualifying for the World Cup right after.

The video has been an amazing tool to attract patients’ attention to our research. We play the video in our clinic on a big TV screen, alongside videos about other clinical trials and studies.

A typical day as a clinical fellow

On a ‘typical day’ I would attend our research clinic in the morning, which has routine NHS clinics running alongside it. There may be a patient coming in to be assessed as part of our speech project.

We also have a ‘research café’ in the lobby where I may talk to patients attending NHS appointments and encourage them to sign up to studies they may be interested in. Occasionally I also see patients under supervision of a consultant neurologist in their NHS clinic as part of my continuing clinical training.

Then, usually in the afternoon, I would put my other hat on as a data and speech science researcher. I meet with speech and data scientists we collaborate with in Edinburgh to discuss ongoing experiments, interpret results and plan for next steps. I usually spend a few hours at the desk coding speech experiments or implementing fixes or improvements to our research apps and databases.

Funding support

The fellowship has supported my work through funding, which has helped expand my horizons beyond expectations. It funds my time to laser focus on this research project. It has funded unique training opportunities such as healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) and speech processing courses and workshops to develop my skills as a clinical academic.

It’s given me the opportunity to attend and present research at scientific conferences, not just in the medical field but also in speech processing and AI. Through communicating our work to other research communities, we have shared our ideas with other people and together generated new ideas we can innovate with.

MRC support funds our data collection and analysis equipment and the costs of my experiments. Without that support, we would not have the quantity and quality of the data we have collected so far. This support also helps with our patient advisory group activities to ensure our research remains relevant to their needs.

My advice for others

Talk to other applicants

Get in touch with previous applicants to get some first-hand experience of the application process and what their thought process was curating the application.

Try to enjoy the application process

The process of completing the fellowship application really helped focus my mind on my research objectives, and I found that a very rewarding experience. It may be hard to enjoy a stressful application process, but it is an opportunity to consolidate your ideas for your research and show off your enthusiasm. Hopefully at the end of it you have this carefully crafted research proposal. Whether you get a fellowship or not, that’s a good thing to have for your career and for the rest of your PhD project.

Think of your audience

Imagine yourself as a top professor in health research in 20 years’ time. Think about what you would like to see in a fellowship applicant and work backwards from there.

For more information about the MRC Clinical Fellowship, visit the UKRI website.