A biologist by training, Helen completed her PhD in the genetics of immune-mediated disease at the University of Manchester in 2018. Her subsequent research at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (Imperial College, London) and the VIB Centre for Molecular Neurology (CMN; University of Antwerp) has combined population genomics with molecular biology, aiming to delineate the effects of genome sequence on gene regulation in health and disease. In 2024, Helen took up a postdoc position at the Erasmus University Medical Centre (Erasmus MC; Rotterdam) to coordinate the Genome of Europe project, an EU-funded initiative to build a European reference genome from 100,000 whole genome sequences collected across 27 countries. Although now based in Rotterdam, she retains close ties with the VIB, as an affiliated researcher with the Computational Neurobiology lab at the CMN. Her research continues to investigate the molecular basis of genetic risk underlying complex disease.