Charting the landscape of the environmental exposome

Abstract

The exposome depicts the total exposures in the lifetime of an organism. Human exposome comprises exposures from environmental and humanistic sources. Biological, chemical, and physical environmental exposures pose potential health threats, especially to susceptible populations. Although still in its nascent stage, we are beginning to recognize the vast and dynamic nature of the exposome. In this review, we systematically summarize the biological and chemical environmental exposomes in three broad environmental matrices—air, soil, and water; each contains several distinct subcategories, along with a brief introduction to the physical exposome. Disease‐related environmental exposures are highlighted, and humans are also a major source of disease‐related biological exposures. We further discuss the interactions between biological, chemical, and physical exposomes. Finally, we propose a list of outstanding challenges under the exposome research framework that need to be addressed to move the field forward. Taken together, we present a detailed landscape of environmental exposome to prime researchers to join this exciting new field.

Generalized Reporter Score-based Enrichment Analysis for Omics Data

“…Multi-omic studies are increasingly prevalent and so are the demands for functional enrichment analysis of all types of omics data 38,39,40,41 . The GRSA applies to all types of omics datasets as long as a relevant relational database is available.…”

Longitudinal Mapping of Personal Biotic and Abiotic Exposomes and Transcriptome in Underwater Confined Space Using Wearable Passive Samplers

“…The internal exposome focuses on identifying internal dose biomarkers to estimate exposure burden and its relationship to adverse health outcomes as well as ‘omic approaches that define specific phenotypes of exposure and disease. The external exposome spans environmental exposures to chemical, biological, and physical factors as well as behavioral aspects like diet and drug use . While measurements of the internal exposome are precise to the individual, current techniques for estimating the external exposome are limited, lacking the precision to characterize complex spatiotemporal biotic and abiotic exposures at the individual level …”

“…Most current research on the external exposome relies on the targeted analysis of specific chemical exposures, which does not comprehensively measure the complexity of the exposome. Moreover, focusing solely on chemical exposures is inadequate, as microbial exposures also significantly contribute to external exposome . However, characterizing both biotic and abiotic exposures remains a core challenge in exposome studies.…”

“…To date, wearable silicone passive samplers have not simultaneously employed nontargeted LC-HRMS/MS and metagenomic shotgun sequencing for personal exposome profiling . While our previous work introduced a wearable sampler capable of capturing both biotic and abiotic exposures, ,, its high cost ($2500/device) and upkeep hinder population-based applications. Thus, developing an affordable passive sampling device is essential for large population research.…”

Population genetic analyses of longitudinal vaginal microbiome reveal racioethnic evolutionary dynamics and prevailing positive selection ofLactobacillusadhesins

“…The vaginal microbiota is spatiotemporally dynamic, as influenced by several factors, including internal genetic and physiological factors, such as changes in hormone levels and immunity during pubertal development, menstruation, pregnancy, menopause, and disease [5][6][7][8][9] . External exposures, or the exposome, such as personal hygiene, sexual behavior, and antibiotic treatment, can also disturb the vaginal microbiome [10][11][12] . Ethnicity, a complex factor related to both internal and external factors, can also impact the vaginal microbiome 13 .…”