TY - JOUR

T1 - Adopting Mechanistic Molecular Biology Approaches in Exposome Research for Causal Understanding

AU - Foreman, Amy L.

AU - Warth, Benedikt

AU - Hessel, Ellen V.S.

AU - Price, Elliott J.

AU - Schymanski, Emma L.

AU - Cantelli, Gaia

AU - Parkinson, Helen

AU - Hecht, Helge

AU - Klánová, Jana

AU - Vlaanderen, Jelle

AU - Hilscherova, Klara

AU - Vrijheid, Martine

AU - Vineis, Paolo

AU - Araujo, Rita

AU - Barouki, Robert

AU - Vermeulen, Roel

AU - Lanone, Sophie

AU - Brunak, Søren

AU - Sebert, Sylvain

AU - Karjalainen, Tuomo

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Through investigating the combined impact of the environmental exposures experienced by an individual throughout their lifetime, exposome research provides opportunities to understand and mitigate negative health outcomes. While current exposome research is driven by epidemiological studies that identify associations between exposures and effects, new frameworks integrating more substantial population-level metadata, including electronic health and administrative records, will shed further light on characterizing environmental exposure risks. Molecular biology offers methods and concepts to study the biological and health impacts of exposomes in experimental and computational systems. Of particular importance is the growing use of omics readouts in epidemiological and clinical studies. This paper calls for the adoption of mechanistic molecular biology approaches in exposome research as an essential step in understanding the genotype and exposure interactions underlying human phenotypes. A series of recommendations are presented to make the necessary and appropriate steps to move from exposure association to causation, with a huge potential to inform precision medicine and population health. This includes establishing hypothesis-driven laboratory testing within the exposome field, supported by appropriate methods to read across from model systems research to human.

AB - Through investigating the combined impact of the environmental exposures experienced by an individual throughout their lifetime, exposome research provides opportunities to understand and mitigate negative health outcomes. While current exposome research is driven by epidemiological studies that identify associations between exposures and effects, new frameworks integrating more substantial population-level metadata, including electronic health and administrative records, will shed further light on characterizing environmental exposure risks. Molecular biology offers methods and concepts to study the biological and health impacts of exposomes in experimental and computational systems. Of particular importance is the growing use of omics readouts in epidemiological and clinical studies. This paper calls for the adoption of mechanistic molecular biology approaches in exposome research as an essential step in understanding the genotype and exposure interactions underlying human phenotypes. A series of recommendations are presented to make the necessary and appropriate steps to move from exposure association to causation, with a huge potential to inform precision medicine and population health. This includes establishing hypothesis-driven laboratory testing within the exposome field, supported by appropriate methods to read across from model systems research to human.

KW - Environment

KW - Exposome

KW - Exposure

KW - GxE

KW - Human Health

KW - Molecular Biology

KW - Toxicology

U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.3c07961

DO - 10.1021/acs.est.3c07961

M3 - Review

C2 - 38641325

AN - SCOPUS:85191174239

VL - 58

SP - 7256

EP - 7269

JO - Environmental Science & Technology

JF - Environmental Science & Technology

SN - 0013-936X

IS - 17

ER -