At Oxford University, Dr. Chris Nellaker is working on teaching computers to recognize rare genetic syndromes through photos of patients. He is passionate about making it easier for doctors to help families to identify these syndromes. Dr. Nellaker is using machine learning to teach algorithms to recognise these syndromes from facial photos.
A current problem for the Oxford team is that their dataset is very small and they need more photos for their algorithm to learn better.. Although the team probably will not be able to help you directly directly, your photos might help others get the right diagnosis faster in future.
Dr. Nellaker is hoping you might consider sending some of your family photos of you and any family members that are also happy to help this research (the more the better, and extra photos from different ages would be very helpful). If you’d like to help, please go to Oxford’s research website at https://www.minervaandme.com
The photos will be kept at a very secure Oxford server and you keep control of how they can be used in research. Your information will be kept confidential according to your wishes, and your participation is completely voluntary. You may also withdraw your photo from the dataset at any time.
Dr. Neallker’s team is not trying to teach the computer to recognise you as an individual, but rather how human faces are different, how they change as we grow up and how rare diseases cause specific changes.
They hope this technology helps families in the future, and it will be openly available for researchers and doctors to use in the near future. Your personal data will only be shared according to your wishes and is yours to control.
If you would like to participate, please go to https://www.minervaandme.com/. More information is provided at the website, and the whole process should take you no more than 15 minutes. If you have any concerns you can contact christoffer.nellaker@bdi.ox.ac.uk.
Many thanks for your time!