People - Staff

Isabelle Killane

Lecturer

Isabelle is a Lecturer in the School of Mechanical Engineering and a Principal Investigator in The Biomedical Research Group in TU Dublin. Isabelle runs The Killane Research Group whose focus is employing Gait as a Window to understand and improve Cognitive Function in order to develop effective clinical applications. Isabelle joined the Technological University Dublin (City Campus) in 2018. Isabelle is involved with strategic and academic development of modules and programmes from level 7 to level 10. A key focus of Isabelle’s work is curriculum innovation at level 9 and level 10 and stakeholder engagement through research projects. This is evident in Isabelle’s role on the Steering Committee for Dementia Research Network in Ireland (DRNI), as a Scientific Committee member for the International Society of Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR) conference, an Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine and an adjunct assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin. Isabelle has expertise in managing and collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams. Currently, Isabelle works with clinical collaborators in Ireland (Tallaght Hospital, The Mater Hospital) and Germany. Isabelle has experience in commercialisation and is a patent co-inventor (EU 13766910.7 – 1662 PCT/EP2013067932, US 14/424,964).

Key Achievements

Excellent Project Management - Successfully completing all projects on time and on budget.
Bench to Bedside Commercialisation: Successfully commercialized eHealthcare technology including device fabrication, data visualisation, regulatory approval and intellectual property generation.
Delivering value from data (acquisition, mining, analysis, interpretation and communication/visualisation) whilst following strict regulatory standards.
High Impact Research and Dissemination including Patient and Public Involvement.
Teaching and Learning: Transfer of essential knowledge to students such as medical device design, data analysis methods, project management, clinical implementation and commercialisation.

Industrial Engagement

A key goal of isabelle’s is to develop mutually beneficial collaborations with industry and to gain funding with those across the European Union and with budding collaborations that I have formed in Britain, Australia and the United States. My future plans are, in conjunction with clinical and industry partners, to further develop effective clinical interventions and assessments.

Leadership and Expertise

Analytical: Key expertise (15+ years) in unlocking value from data employing innovative methods.
Strong skills in and much experience of experimental design for clinical settings, statistical modelling, interpretation and communication/visualisation, including predictive modelling.
Extensive Project Management experience: including appropriate data management as per regulations and for privacy and security. Experience in projects involving cross disciplinary teams across Europe.
Excellent Leadership skills: supervisory, business development and team building expertise.

Research

Isabelle’s research focus is on aging and clinical populations. Isabelle is passionate about developing and delivering solutions which truly reflect the complexity of the outcome and that can be integrated into the clinical environment. Isabelle’s research focus is neural engineering and rehabilitation with an emphasis on experimental and statistical models that examine predictors of disease states or events in order to improve function. Specifically, investigating the efficacy of kinematic measures at (1) predicting conversion from cognitive health and (2) improving cognitive function through clinical interventions. Isabelle’s contributions span from statistical modelling of variables (gait, neuropsychological, effects of disease) in large datasets, examining the efficacy of novel experimental and acquisition methods (dual tasks, ambulatory gait-EEG) for employment in a clinical setting, and analysis methods for supervised and unsupervised gait. Current projects investigate kinematic measurements applied to Neurogeriatrics.

Isabelle has 15+years of experience as a student project supervisor. This work includes the collection and interpretation of gait data through biomedical sensors (pressure-sensing mats, 3-D motion analysis, balance boards) and neurological data through experimentation and neuropsychological assessment test.

Isabelle holds a PhD in Neural Engineering, MSc in Bioengineering, PG Dip in Statistics and BA BAI in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College, The University of Dublin in Ireland.