Enrico de Lazaro
Enrico de Lazaro reports on human health as part of a wider science brief, with a through-line of translating complex biomedical and brain research into clear, evidence‑based stories about how the body and mind work. He focuses on the mechanisms behind disease and intervention rather than lifestyle advice, anchoring each piece in current peer‑reviewed studies and the underlying biology.
Health and medicine grounded in research detail
At Sci.News, he covers health through the lens of experimental medicine and neuroscience, explaining how new findings change understanding of conditions and treatments. In his coverage of work using engineered adeno‑associated viruses to restore sight in blinding diseases, he breaks down how modifying viral coats expands the reach of gene therapy into delicate retinal cells and how this experimental platform cures specific hereditary eye disorders in animal models. He emphasizes procedural detail — such as minimally invasive injections into the vitreous humor and the comparative performance of new vectors against existing therapies — to show what is practically different about emerging treatments. In his dementia‑related reporting on daytime bright light exposure, he treats behavior and environment as biological inputs, connecting everyday factors like light levels to measurable changes in cognitive risk via sleep regulation and circadian rhythms rather than framing them as general wellness tips. Across this health beat, he consistently ties individual studies back to the larger questions of disease prevention, sensory function, and how interventions move from experimental setups toward clinical practice.
Genetics and ancient DNA as tools to understand humans
Genetic research is a recurring strand in his work, and he treats DNA as both a modern medical resource and a historical record. In his coverage of West African populations carrying genetic ancestry from a mysterious archaic hominin, he explains how differences in genomic patterns point to introgression from an unknown branch of the human family tree and quantifies that contribution at 2 to 19% of ancestry in several present‑day groups. He highlights key parameters such as estimated split times between archaic and modern lineages and the timing of gene flow into the ancestors of contemporary Africans, showing how population genetics can reconstruct events with no fossil match. In a separate line of reporting on extracting ancient human DNA directly from cave walls, he details how sampling of painted panels yielded usable genetic material from only one location, underscoring the technical limits of recovering DNA from pigmented surfaces and the caution needed in linking genetic traces to specific artists or activities. His work on prehistoric dentistry, where beeswax was used as a therapeutic filling in a 6,500‑year‑old human tooth, likewise treats physical material — in this case a jaw bone and its altered enamel — as evidence for early medical practice and pain management strategies. Together, these genetics and ancient‑DNA stories show a consistent approach: he explains methods, constraints, and what can and cannot be inferred about human history and biology.
Archaeology and paleoanthropology at the intersection of health and behavior
Beyond contemporary medicine, he regularly covers archaeological and paleoanthropological studies that illuminate how past populations lived, cared for bodies, and adapted to their environments. His report on the beeswax‑filled tooth situates that single jaw within a broader discussion of early therapeutic dental practice, describing the crack in enamel and dentin, the application of beeswax, and the possibility that it was intended to reduce pain and sensitivity. In work on 20,000‑year‑old whale bone tools from Spain, he details how a set of bone implements from cave and rockshelter sites around the Bay of Biscay fits into Upper Paleolithic subsistence and technology, using stratigraphic ranges to place these tools in specific windows of the late Ice Age. He also covers large‑scale reconstructions of ancient communities, including reports that use mitochondrial DNA from multiple fossils to map one of the oldest known Neanderthal groups, linking family relationships and social organization to migration and survival questions. Across these pieces, his interest in health persists in the background: he highlights how tool use, medical improvisation, and social structures relate to bodily care and resilience over tens of thousands of years.
Cross‑disciplinary science reporting with a consistent explanatory style
Although his beat includes health, his recent Sci.News bylines span astronomy, physics, biology, paleontology, anthropology, and archaeology, and he handles them with the same explanatory discipline. In physics and astronomy coverage, he reports on work such as the discovery of a PeVatron — a cosmic‑ray accelerator near the Milky Way’s center — by explaining how telescopes like H.E.S.S. detect very‑high‑energy particles and how observations constrain the location and energy range of the source. His stories on topics like new methods to measure the Hubble constant and Webb Space Telescope maps of millions of stars similarly focus on the specific measurement techniques and what they change about existing models. In biology and paleontology, he writes about taxonomic revisions and new fossils, from the splitting of a widespread planigale into multiple species to finds that push back the origins of spider fangs and describe new shark teeth from the Permian period. He presents each as a tightly framed advance, describing the specimen, the anatomical feature in question, and the implications for evolutionary timelines rather than general interest curiosities. This breadth of topics reinforces what communications teams can expect from him on any health‑related story: an emphasis on primary research, clear mechanisms, cautious interpretation, and placement of each finding within a larger scientific narrative.
4 more health journalists.
Abida Tasnim
Abida Tasnim is a health writer for The Daily Star who focuses on clear, practical guidance that helps readers recognise risks early and act before everyday illnesses turn into wider public health problems. She reports on infectious disease prevention, using measles coverage to show how outbreaks start with individual decisions and behaviours, not just hospital statistics. Her work explains what happens during an outbreak and then anchors the story in simple steps people can take, such as avoiding crowded places when symptoms appear, practising good hygiene, and seeking medical advice early. She writes direct, action‑oriented health explainers that turn clinical questions about contagion and disease burden into everyday choices. Across her beat, she stresses early recognition, timely care, and prevention as the foundations of healthier communities.
Adrián Carballo Casla
Adrián Carballo Casla stands out for turning complex cohort data on ageing into clear, food‑level advice on what older adults should eat to protect brain health and slow chronic disease. He is a researcher in nutritional epidemiology focused on ageing and chronic disease prevention and a postdoctoral researcher in geriatric epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, writing health explainers for The Conversation. He reports on how diet quality, especially Mediterranean and Mind‑style patterns, shapes dementia risk, grey matter loss and neurocognitive ageing, and how healthy versus pro‑inflammatory diets alter multimorbidity trajectories. His articles translate findings on flavonoids, polyphenols, folate, omega‑3 fats and dietary nitrates into specific food choices and small, practical changes. Much of his coverage is anchored in his own studies on multimorbidity, high‑risk older adults and tailored dietary recommendations, often syndicated to other outlets.
Ahmed Elbediwy
Ahmed Elbediwy brings a lab-based understanding of cancer biology and clinical biochemistry to public-facing health reporting, linking drug mechanisms and molecular pathways to everyday choices about medicines and products. He writes for The Conversation on weight-loss injections, cancer overdiagnosis and anti-ageing supplements, focusing on obesity medicine, cancer signalling, screening trade-offs, skincare and supplement science. His pieces on GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro explain why some people do not respond, how gut hormones and appetite signals work, and where psychological support and nutrition fit alongside prescriptions. He co-authors explainers on cancer risk and overdiagnosis and on whether supplements can reverse ageing, separating established knowledge from emerging research. An award-winning senior lecturer at Kingston University, he favours clear, structured explainers, careful definition of key terms and evidence-based appraisal over hype.
Amanda Sheppeard
Amanda Sheppeard is a managing editor and health journalist known for long, detailed explainers that connect complex clinical research, disability policy and political narratives with the daily realities of doctors and patients. She works at The Medical Republic across editorial leadership and commercial content while reporting widely on medicine for its specialist titles. Her real beat spans autism, disability policy, autoimmune disease, infectious threats and system pressures in primary care and hospitals. She covers subjects such as autism diagnosis and the NDIS, rheumatology’s clinical shifts, weight-loss agents in rheumatoid arthritis, infection control, antimicrobial resistance and new modalities like CAR T-cell therapy and microneedles. She reports by doing the synthesis inside the story, linking trial design, molecular targets, funding rules and policy changes to concrete decisions and workflows in clinics and hospitals.