The Exposome: An Approach for Untargeted Discovery in Environmental Health

As we seek to understand the influence of environmental exposures on human health, it has become apparent that new approaches are needed to supplement the traditional focused analyses common to environmental epidemiology and toxicology. The concept of the exposome, with its focus on exposures to combinations of factors across broad time scales and integration of both external and internal measures of exposure with molecular and physiological response promises to allow the generation of unique hypotheses for subsequent targeted analyses through either mechanistic or epidemiological studies. As part of its recent strategic planning activity, the NIEHS is placing a high priority on developing the exposome as a tool for discovery in the environmental health sciences. As part of our vision, we see a need for increased awareness of the concept of the exposome, the development of new technologies for multi-analyte exposure assessment and statistical approached, and the design of a definitive study to demonstrate the potential for uncovering unanticipated associations between environmental exposures and disease endpoints. Success of this demonstration project will not only generate new tools for subsequent studies and novel hypotheses for targeted validation efforts but will provide critical insight into the sources of important exposures to inform public health decision making.