Personalized Exposure Assessment: Promising Approaches for Human Environmental Health Research

Abstract

New technologies and methods for assessing human exposure to chemicals, dietary and lifestyle factors, infectious agents, and other stressors provide an opportunity to extend the range of human health investigations and advance our understanding of the relationship between environmental exposure and disease. An ad hoc Committee on Environmental Exposure Technology Development was convened to identify new technologies and methods for deriving personalized exposure measurements for application to environmental health studies. The committee identified a “toolbox” of methods for measuring external (environmental) and internal (biologic) exposure and assessing human behaviors that influence the likelihood of exposure to environmental agents. The methods use environmental sensors, geographic information systems, biologic sensors, toxicogenomics, and body burden (biologic) measurements. We discuss each of the methods in relation to current use in human health research; specific gaps in the development, validation, and application of the methods are highlighted. We also present a conceptual framework for moving these technologies into use and acceptance by the scientific community. The framework focuses on understanding complex human diseases using an integrated approach to exposure assessment to define particular exposure–disease relationships and the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in disease occurrence. Improved methods for exposure assessment will result in better means of monitoring and targeting intervention and prevention programs.

Overview of the Symposium on Public Health Significance of Genomics and Eco-Genetics

“…He emphasizes the importance of reliable exposure measures, for which NIEHS is developing better technology (24). Of course, multiple genes and multiple environmental factors often need to be analyzed and related to biomarkers, pathways, modules, and functional systems.…”

“…In contrast, the environmental side of the interface has been underinvestigated. The Gene-Environment Initiative led jointly by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the efforts of NIEHS to develop sensors of environmental exposures and biomarker patterns from toxico-genomic and toxico-proteomic proof-of-principle studies of a very few hazardous chemicals and drugs (http://www.niehs.nih.gov) are still at early stages (24). Extensive datasets on ambient air quality, water quality, food contamination, pesticide use, and other environmental monitoring, let alone dietary, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol histories of individuals, have yet to be linked with health care and genotype datasets to reveal new eco-genetic relationships important to estimating disease risks and designing preventive interventions (17).…”

Complementing the Genome with an “Exposome”: The Outstanding Challenge of Environmental Exposure Measurement in Molecular Epidemiology

“…The concept of an exposome may serve to highlight this requirement and to balance the effort going towards characterization of the genome. An extension of the current generation of biomarkers, together with an evaluation of the new generation of ''omics'' technologies, has a crucial role to play in this regard (35). However, advances will require increasing collaboration between epidemiologists, biostatisticians, experts in bioinformatics, and laboratory and environmental scientists.…”

Old Obstacles on New Horizons: The Challenge of Implementing Gene X Environment Discoveries in Schizophrenia Research

“…ii. Secondly, it is anticipated that social science research will benefit from an unprecedented program of investment that will stimulate the emergence of newer methodologies designed to improve the resolution with which social risk factors are measured 5,6 .…”