{"id":153412,"date":"2025-06-03T00:13:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153412\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T00:13:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T00:13:14","slug":"environmental-factor-june-2025-human-exposome-forum-marks-historic-step-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153412\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Factor – June 2025: Human exposome forum marks historic step forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global leaders in science, medicine, and business, including from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently launched an unprecedented initiative to share knowledge and resources for quantifying how our environments influence health. The global initiative builds on momentum to comprehensively and systematically measure the exposome, which is the integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial influences that impact biology throughout one\u2019s life course.<\/p>\n

\"Gary
\n Gary Miller, Ph.D., left, and Roel Vermeulen, Ph.D., right, who lead exposome research networks in the U.S. and Europe, respectively, celebrate the founding of a new global consortium May 15. (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins)<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we took one small step for exposome science, one giant leap for prevention,\u201d said Thomas Hartung, M.D., Ph.D., who co-hosted the Exposome Moonshot Forum<\/a> at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center.<\/p>\n

More than 400 individuals from 30 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa gathered in Washington, D.C., and virtually to take part in the forum May 12-15. Participants committed to collaborating across scientific disciplines, public and private sectors, and national boundaries to foster advances in understanding environmental health risks, and to provide improved tools for disease prevention, diagnostics, and treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we really want to influence human health, we have to develop a bold vision and think creatively about how we can work together to study the complex interplay of different environmental exposures,\u201d said NIEHS Director Rick Woychik, Ph.D.<\/a>, during his keynote address.<\/p>\n

Forum participants accepted the challenge, sketching out plans during panel and breakout sessions over the course of three days. Their goal: Create a research framework to collaboratively bridge emerging technologies, big data, and AI with ethical and social considerations to advance exposomics, which is the study of the exposome.<\/p>\n

\"Nicole
\n \u201cWe\u2019re at an inflection point where biomedical research is evolving extremely rapidly to meet the complexities of real life,\u201d said Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives Nicole Kleinstreuer, Ph.D. \u201cOur health is not determined by biology alone; it is shaped by our environment every day across a lifetime.\u201d (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins)<\/p>\n

Global commitment<\/p>\n

Now is the time to launch a global human exposome initiative as the necessary complement to the Human Genome Project, say organizers of the recent forum. The reason: Studies show the environment may be a major contributor to chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.<\/p>\n

Nearly 25 years ago, the completion of the first draft of the Human Genome Project launched a new era that helped scientists move beyond studying a single gene\u2019s effects to understanding how all genes together shape health. Developing the technology to sequence the entire genome included a $3.8 billion investment from the U.S. government. The return on that investment: nearly $1 trillion dollars in economic activity from 1988-2010, according to a 2013 report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA similar investment in our future and the exposome means we\u2019re not investing in hospital wings later,\u201d said Hartung. \u201cPrevention is cheaper than prescription.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, experts now say it\u2019s time to move beyond measuring one environmental exposure at a time to determining the health effects of the many exposures people encounter every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the last 10 years, a lot of work has been occurring across many different labs and research groups, but we need to come together now in a focused effort to really drive exposomics forward,\u201d said Gary Miller, Ph.D., who co-leads the Network for Exposomics in the U.S. (NEXUS<\/a>). A half-dozen NIH Institutes and Offices, led by NIEHS, support the NEXUS research coordinating center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Network for Exposomics in Europe (IHEN), alongside the European Infrastructure project EIRENE<\/a>, are viewed as key collaborators in this effort. EIRENE, led by Jana KI\u00e1nov\u00e1, Ph.D., seeks to develop the technical infrastructure to harmonize laboratories, environmental studies, population cohorts, and databases for human exposome research. An NIEHS delegation, including Woychik, Division of Extramural Research and Training Director David Balshaw, Ph.D.<\/a>, and Sri Nadadur, Ph.D.<\/a>, chief of the Exposure, Response, and Technology Branch, visited<\/a> KI\u00e1nov\u00e1\u2019s team at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, last fall.<\/p>\n

\"Rick
\n NIEHS Director Rick Woychik, Ph.D., described how countries working in unison made the Human Genome Project a success; an important lesson, he said, for operationalizing exposomics. (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins)<\/p>\n

Precision health, precision prevention<\/p>\n

Thanks to a convergence of technical advances, scientists can now determine how the environment and genes interact to affect a person\u2019s unique biology and health.<\/p>\n

Newer technologies, including mass spectrometry and nanotechnology, allow scientists to measure hundreds of chemicals in a simple blood, tissue, or tumor sample.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have so much more information from human samples, and satellite imaging, and sensors to measure our external environment,\u201d explained Miller. \u201cUsing improved systems for data analysis, artificial intelligence, and machine learning allows us to bring all of these datasets together to study the exposome at a level we couldn\u2019t just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ability to link exposures \u2014 whether external like air pollution or internal like stress \u2014 to changes in a person\u2019s biology can be used to understand risk factors and improve health at the individual and population level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe compilation of different factors \u2014 be it the air we breathe, water we drink, chemicals we are exposed to, experiences we have, nutrition we eat \u2014 are all very important for health outcomes,\u201d said Roel Vermeulen, Ph.D., of Utrecht University, Netherlands, who co-leads the Network for Exposomics in Europe (IHEN<\/a>). \u201cIf we want to combat the large burden of chronic diseases, we need to better understand what those drivers are. Without knowing what the sources of those drivers are, we will not be able to devise effective prevention programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

And those prevention efforts hinge on everyday citizens taking part in research to collaboratively uncover how environmental factors are influencing their health.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
\n Hartung, left, and Fenna Sill\u00e9, Ph.D., who direct the Centers for Alternatives to Animal Testing and the Johns Hopkins University Exposome Collaborative, hosted the Exposome Moonshot Forum. (Photo courtesy of Johns Hopkins)<\/p>\n

\u201cExposome research is about citizen science and bringing together biomedical science and environmental science with citizen science,\u201d said Denis Sarigiannis, Ph.D., who directs the National Hellenic Research Foundation in Greece. \u201cIn the end, we want to enhance our positive impact on public health. Exposome data can guide the policies that shape health outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prevention may be paramount, but exposome data also can be used to halt disease progression and improve treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people do get sick, exposome data could reveal how the environment may interfere with a treatment,\u201d Miller said. \u201cExposomics can inform why a particular drug doesn\u2019t work as well as it should or why certain people don\u2019t respond to chemotherapy or statins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge ahead<\/p>\n

Although the Human Genome Project centered on one scientific task, the exposome equivalent seeks to accomplish many. By reaching across multiple scientific disciplines, the forum drew experts in chemistry, biology, epidemiology, toxicology, public health, clinical research, patient care, data science, AI, policy, ethics, law, and social science.<\/p>\n

During the breakout sessions, forum participants, including scientists, physicians, venture capitalists, policymakers, and patient advocates, shared what they hoped the initiative could achieve in the coming years. Some highlights include the following goals.<\/p>\n