Exposome

Although health and disease have both genetic and environmental inputs, the majority of disease risk is attributable to the environment. Yet, environmental exposure assessment has greatly lagged behind its biological counterparts (e.g., genomics, metabolomics, etc.). Genomic studies have spurred tremendous advancements in our understanding of disease biology and complex-trait genetics. In the same sense, a more expansive view of environmental exposures is necessary for us to advance the field of environmental health and study the complex role it plays in our health.

Historically, studies have focused on a single chemical or a set of closely related chemicals. However, this narrow focus does not mirror reality. We are constantly exposed to many chemicals simultaneously and our exposure patterns depend on the source of exposure and lifestyle habits. Thus, there is a clear need for the exposome approach as a complement to past and ongoing targeted studies.

The emerging field of exposomics offers a much-needed omic-level approach in environmental health research. Functionally, it acts as a framework for us to take a more comprehensive approach whereby we examine a large set of chemical exposures simultaneously as well as potential chemical-chemical interactions. In practice, exposome studies attempt to capture a large set of environmental exposures simultaneously and have the potential to address limitations of existing studies by investigating the impact of “real life” exposures and their combinations and interactions between exposures.

Featured projects:

• NEXUS: Network for Exposomics in the U.S.
  • The NEXUS U24 Coordinating Center for Exposome Research will serve as a resource for the biomedical community to facilitate the use of exposomic methods and approaches in all human diseases and conditions.​
• SAMBAI: Societal, Ancestry and Molecular Biology Analyses of Inequalities
  • ​​​​​​​Tackling the cancer inequities challenge since 2024, team SAMBAI (Social, Ancestry, Molecular and Biological Analysis of Inequalities) is striving to decode the factors that cause and influence disparate cancer outcomes in underserved populations of African descent. ​
• Impact of environmental toxicants on AD and ADRD risk in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes study AD/ADRD project
  • The goal of this proposal is to prospectively examine the exposome, along with individual concentrations of multiple contaminants and their molecular mechanisms in relation to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias(ADRD), leveraging the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS)AD/ADRD project.​