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The Exposome Research Paradigm: an Opportunity to Understand the Environmental Basis for Human Health and Disease

  • Methods in Environmental Epidemiology (EF Schisterman and AZ Pollack, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This paper presents an overview of the exposome research paradigm with particular application to understanding human reproduction and development and its implications for health across a lifespan.

Recent Findings

The exposome research paradigm has generated considerable discussion about its feasibility and utility for delineating the impact of environmental exposures on human health. Early initiatives are underway, including smaller proof-of-principle studies and larger concerted efforts. Despite the notable challenges underlying the exposome paradigm, analytic techniques are being developed to handle its untargeted approach and correlated and multi-level or hierarchical data structures such initiatives generate, while considering multiple comparisons. The relatively short intervals for critical and sensitive windows of human reproduction and development seem well suited for exposome research and may revolutionize our understanding of later onset diseases.

Summary

Early initiatives suggest that the exposome paradigm is feasible, but its utility remains to be established with applications to population human health research.

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Acknowledgements

The Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Patel was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (1R00ES023504 and 1R21ES025052) and a gift from Agilent Technologies, Inc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Office of the Director, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 6710B Rockledge Drive, Room 3148, Rockville, MD, 20852, USA

    Germaine M. Buck Louis & Melissa M. Smarr

  2. Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, 10 Shattuck St., Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Chirag J. Patel

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  1. Germaine M. Buck Louis
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Correspondence to Germaine M. Buck Louis.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Methods in Environmental Epidemiology

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Buck Louis, G.M., Smarr, M.M. & Patel, C.J. The Exposome Research Paradigm: an Opportunity to Understand the Environmental Basis for Human Health and Disease. Curr Envir Health Rpt 4, 89–98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-017-0126-3

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