15 years ago, Willem discovered an important bacterium called Akkermansia muciniphila, which was shown to slow down cardio-metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity. After pioneering microbiome science, Willem decided to move to Finland to tackle the next big topic in microbiology: the early life microbiome, including pregnancy and the first years of life. Willem started pioneering the HELMi Cohort to discover how disease might already start in the first years of life. He's also been one of the very first to pioneer research in gut microbiome restoration after C-section and antibiotics.
Nora has multiple food allergies and eczema and knows that lifestyle, in particular diet, strongly affects her symptoms. She started to research why chronic conditions start and what it would take to stop them for good. She was surprised to find out that lifestyle and gut health in the first years of life can affect the chances to have allergies or eczema later in life.
In 2022, Nora and Willem then started Alba Health, to empower families in achieving a healthy lifestyle whilst collecting anonymised data to advance chronic disease prevention.