Helen Albert

Helen is a freelance science journalist based in Berlin, Germany. Specialising in healthcare, life sciences, bioanthropology, biotech and innovation. 

Highlighted Work

Advanced Science News •

High yield, eco-friendly rice reduces methane emissions by 70%

A group of scientists have bred a new variety of rice that could help combat rising methane levels around the world.  


“Methane has a very strong impact. It’s around 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide,” explained Anna Schnürer, a microbiologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and one of the contributing scientists. “Rice field cultivation corresponds to approximately 13% of the methane that humans are releasing into the atmosphere. So, it’s having a significant effect on...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Pulling Antimicrobial Innovation Forward One Step at a Time

Antimicrobial drugs have saved billions of lives over the last century, but during the last 30 years, deaths due to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) have increased exponentially. While there are many early-stage companies and researchers working to bring new treatments and diagnostics to market, success seems difficult due to reimbursement issues.
The ability of some pathogenic bacteria to resist antibiotics became clear shortly after drugs like penicillin began to be produced in large quantities...
Inside Precision Medicine •

In Conversation with Vanessa Carter and Sue Charles

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a challenging and life-threatening global health problem, despite some progress in tackling the problem over the last decade. Listening to stories from patients who have survived AMR can help to humanize the issue and really make people understand the problem.
AMR was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, with the first global action plan and United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting occurring in 2016.
Since th...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Building a Precision Medicine Ecosystem in Africa

African populations are not well represented in genomic research, despite the enormous amount of genetic variation present in African populations. This gap makes it harder to develop fair and effective precision medicine programs that work for everyone.
Lack of funding and infrastructure in the region has made it hard to establish local programs in Africa in the past, but things are changing. Genomics and the early stages of precision medicine are now being set up in a number of countries on the...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Uncovering the Mysteries of the Gut–Brain Connection

Links between the gut and the brain were discovered many years ago, but what role does the gut microbiome play in this relationship? Recent research suggests that disruption of or abnormal activity in the gut microbiome may increase our risk for neurological disease, but whether this knowledge can be harnessed to treat, diagnose, or monitor such conditions remains to be seen.
Research into the physiology of the gut–brain connection largely began in the 19th century. In the 1840s, William Beaumon...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Applying Precision Technology to Tackle Climate-Driven Infectious Diseases

The devastating impact that infectious diseases can have on the global population was well demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, pandemics remain unusual occurrences, but research suggests that factors such as climate change may be increasing the risk of such events occurring in the future.
In a pre-pandemic study published in 2016, infectious disease researcher Jan Semenza, PhD, currently based at Umeå University in Sweden, and colleagues assessed potential drivers of infectious d...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Making Women’s Health a Priority

Hormones play a big role in our day-to-day health, and this is particularly relevant for women’s health, whether in relation to contraception, fertility, menstrual or endocrine problems, or menopause.
However, hormone levels are rarely measured by healthcare professionals and accessing data about hormone levels to make decisions about their health can be frustratingly difficult for many people. Marina Pavlovic Rivas, CEO and co-founder of Montreal-based startup Eli Health experienced this hersel...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Beginning a New Era of Precision Alzheimer’s Therapeutics

Finding an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has proved to be a long and difficult quest, but the approval of lecanemab (Leqembi®) last year for the treatment of early-stage disease was a pivotal turning point for the field.
Alzheimer’s is a disease associated with aging and impacts almost seven million people in the U.S. over the age of 65, with women and Black or Hispanic populations disproportionately affected by the condition. During the disease process of Alzheimer’s, amyloid beta...
Inside Precision Medicine •

Breaking Down Sex and Gender Barriers in Search of Precision Medicine

Biological sex and gender have a large impact on the presentation of a disease, its progression, and how it is treated, but these factors have not received adequate research or clinical attention. Positive signs of change are emerging, but there is a lot that needs to be achieved before these benefits can reach a wide range of patients.

To achieve true precision medicine, many potential factors need to be considered. An important example of this is a person’s biological sex and gender.

“Intuit
Inside Precision Medicine •

Broadening the Scope of Clinical Trials: The Changing Role of Real-World Evidence

The role that real-world evidence, and the data that feeds into it, play in the clinical trials arena is changing. For many years, drug developers and regulators have collected real-world data (RWD) on adverse events linked to newly approved medicines. However, this data has not played a significant role in developing or executing pre-approval clinical trials.

The situation is now changing. “There’s always been a need to look at how drugs that are coming out of clinical trials behave in the rea
Chemistry World •

Bioelectric bacteria-powered sensor detects water contaminants in real time

Synthetic biology has been combined with electrical engineering to create a small bioelectric sensor that can sense water contaminants in just minutes.

The sensor is currently at the prototype stage and is not yet being produced commercially, but has already been used to detect thiosulfate, known to cause algal blooms, within 2 minutes and also the endocrine disruptor 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-HT) within 3 minutes.

Detection methods for these environmental pollutants, and others such as nitrates a
Inside Precision Medicine •

Genomic Pathogen Surveillance in the Spotlight

The COVID-19 pandemic has really highlighted the need for effective genomic pathogen surveillance and allowed researchers around the world to hone their skills and technology. While these advances are not in doubt, whether they are maintained and used to help prevent new pandemics and fight global threats such as antimicrobial resistance remains to be seen.

Over the last decade, huge advances in technology have made genomic sequencing cheaper and more accessible, facilitating the tracking of ba
Chemistry World •

Edible, fluorescent silk tags could help stem tide of counterfeit medicines

A group of researchers based in the US and Korea have developed and tested an edible matrix code made of silk that can be attached to tablets or added to liquids as an anticounterfeiting measure. The tag is made of silk and is invisible to the eye, but can be picked up by specific optical filters on a smartphone camera that can pick up fluorescence.

Drug counterfeiting is an increasing problem. Every year it causes thousands of deaths and poisonings, and recent increases in online sales have on
Labiotech.eu •

Nature’s Painters: Making Sustainable Colors with Microbes

The production of textile dyes and food colorants can have a big environmental footprint. Biotech startups are rising to the challenge by engineering bacteria, fungi, and algae to sustainably produce natural colors.

Eight years ago, University of Cambridge researcher Jim Ajioka was in Nepal helping to produce a biosensor to detect arsenic in drinking water and was shocked at how poor the water quality was in the region.

“In Kathmandu, all of the textile industry just dumps its waste straight i
New Scientist •

Investigation fails to replicate most cancer biology lab findings

The reliability of early-stage cancer biology research is called into question by an investigation that concludes more than half of experimental results can’t be replicated by independent scientists

Lab-based cancer research isn’t always easy to replicate, according to a new investigation

An eight-year-long investigation into the reliability of preclinical cancer biology research has found that fewer than half of the results published in 23 highly cited papers could be successfully reproduced.
Labiotech.eu •

What the EU's Single-Use Plastics Ban Means for the Bioplastics Industry

A European directive banning a range of single-use plastics came into law this month. How are the new regulations impacting industrial biotech companies developing bioplastics?

In an attempt to reduce staggeringly high levels of plastic pollution seen around the world, particularly in marine environments, the 27 EU member states and Norway agreed in 2019 to restrict ‘single-use plastics’ from being produced and sold in the EU.

The countries were given two years to implement the new regulations
Photo by Pok Rie on Pexels
Biodesigned •

Prophet in the Sewer — Biodesigned

Environmental engineer Smruthi Karthikeyan started her postdoc with Rob Knight at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in March 2020 only days before the state implemented its first Covid lockdown.

“I haven’t met most of my colleagues,” she told me.

Starting a new job during a pandemic is not ideal, but Karthikeyan was soon offered an unexpected opportunity. “I was mostly working on computational stuff, and then one day, my principal investigator called me saying, ‘You're an environme
Labiotech.eu •

Biomaterials Are Making the Building Industry More Sustainable

There is a growing awareness of the waste and pollution caused by the building industry. New biomaterials are being created using waste products and microbes to solve these ecological problems.

“Using biological materials in buildings isn’t a new concept – we’ve built wooden structures for thousands of years,” said Gavin McIntyre, co-founder and Director of Business Development at Ecovative Design, a US-based biotech making materials with mycelium — part of the root system of mushrooms.

Increa
Chemistry World •

Contact lenses with gold nanoparticles can help correct colour blindness

Contact lenses embedded with gold nanoparticles have been used to help correct red–green colour vision deficiency. The researchers believe the lenses will be more comfortable, effective and safer for wearers than the options currently available.

Although many variations exist, the most common kind of colour vision deficiency or ‘blindness’ is when people have difficulty differentiating red from green. People with colour blindness, which mostly affects men, are able to live perfectly normal live
Labiotech.eu •

Biotech Drives the Water Purification Industry Towards a Circular Economy

Water purification has never been more important, but antiquated methods and a lack of innovation have held the sector back. Biotechnology proposes solutions that bring us one step closer to a true circular economy.

Rising populations and pollution levels mean that water purification is now more crucial than ever before. However, much of the industry is still using water treatment methods that originated over 100 years ago.

“Coming from biotechnology, I’m really surprised about how little inno
Labiotech.eu •

GMO Regulations in Europe Are "Not Fit for Purpose"

The controversial decision by the European courts in 2018 to regulate gene-edited organisms as GMOs has had a damaging effect on biotech companies working in this area.

The current GMO regulations were established in Europe in 2001 and were designed to strictly regulate the introduction of DNA from other species into animals and plants. These regulations do not cover mutagenesis techniques, such as exposure to radiation, where mutations are artificially induced without inserting foreign DNA.

I
New Scientist •

Earphone cameras watch your facial expressions and read your lips

A wearable device consisting of two mini-cameras mounted on earphones can recognise your facial expressions and read your lips, even if your mouth is covered.

The tool – called C-Face – was developed by Cheng Zhang at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues. It looks at the sides of the wearer’s head and uses machine learning to accurately visualise facial expressions by analysing small changes in cheek contour lines.

“With previous technology to reconstruct facial expressio
British Medical Journal •

What will it take for Germany to embrace digital health?

Germans are not fast adopters of digital technology. With a fondness for using cash and low uptake of social media compared with most countries, they fiercely guard their right to control how personal information, including health records, is shared.1 When the independent foundation Bertelsmann Stiftung compiled an index measuring 17 countries’ progress in healthcare digitisation in 2019, Germany ranked second from the bottom (the UK came sixth).2

But 2020 is proving a time of change. Jörg Deba

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