He received his MD and PhD from Washington University School of Medicine, where he also completed a neurology residency. Tom studied the mechanisms of axonal sprouting specifically looking at neurorehabilitation and stroke as a HHMI physician postdoctoral fellow at UCLA. In 2001, Tom joined the UCLA faculty. His laboratory has continued to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neural repair after stroke. Tom is an attending physician on the Neurorehabilitation and Stroke clinical services at UCLA.