Exposure Biology and the Exposome

Program Description

Complex environmental exposures from a variety of sources can affect a person’s health. Frequently, we think of exposures such as chemicals, radiation, infectious agents, and lifestyle factors that occur outside the body. However, a person’s response to these exposures can be altered by how the exposures interact with their normal biological systems, particularly metabolic processes and the microbiome. The microbiome is all of the microorganisms naturally in and on the body.

Measuring the totality of exposures a person experiences from conception to death along with the associated biological response is referred to as the exposome, a concept that has become increasingly important for discovering environmental causes of disease.

What NIEHS Is Doing

Exposure Biology

A better understanding of the complex nature of how a person’s environment contributes to their health requires sustained development of technology to measure exposures. This includes better biomarkers, new sensors and monitors, and remote detection of exposures. NIEHS-funded scientists are:

• Creating advanced computer models that can be used to predict the consequences of exposure.
• Developing new computational tools to manage and analyze large exposure data sets.
• Developing ways to screen compounds for potential health effects.
• Working on more sensitive approaches to analyze how the body responds to exposures.

From 2007-2010, NIEHS and other NIH institutes coordinated research on exposure biology and genetics through the Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative. As part of this effort, NIEHS oversaw the establishment of the Exposure Biology Program, which funded the development of wearable and field deployable sensor systems for measuring chemical exposures, dietary intake, physical activity, psychosocial stress, and the use of substances of abuse.

In parallel, the NIEHS Exposure Biology Program supported research to identify biomarkers that show biological response to these stressors. NIEHS remains committed to advancing exposure science and supports many promising research efforts in this area through investigator-initiated research, Small Business Programs, and the Superfund Research Program.

The Exposome

A major goal of both the 2012-2017 and 2018-2023 NIEHS Strategic Plans is to promote exposome research and create a blueprint to incorporate exposure science into human health studies. NIEHS is transforming exposure science by improving characterization of environmental exposures, defining and disseminating the concept of the exposome, and creating the necessary tools and technologies to measure it.

As a leader in environmental health sciences, NIEHS has been at the forefront of exposome efforts and is committed to engaging the scientific community to clearly define the exposome and create research opportunities to explore it.

In 2013 and 2018, NIEHS funded the Health and Exposome Research Center: Understanding Lifetime Exposures (HERCULES) at Emory University, which conducts exposome-focused research and develops new tools and technology for assessing the exposome.

In 2015, NIEHS launched the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR), a major new infrastructure that gave researchers access to laboratory analyses of biological samples from NIH-funded studies on children's health. CHEAR also supported a suite of data science tools, including a data repository for exposure measurements and epidemiologic data provided by researchers. CHEAR supported more than 30 children’s studies covering a broad range of exposures and health outcomes.

In 2019, NIEHS built upon the success of CHEAR by offering exposure analysis resources to researchers studying life stages and health outcomes that occur later in life. The expanded program, called the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR), provides a larger community of researchers access to centralized, high-quality exposure assessment services. This allows researchers to better understand the influence of environment on health throughout the life-course and eventually support more comprehensive assessment of the developmental origins of health and disease.

Program Contacts

Program Lead

David Balshaw, Ph.D.
Branch Chief, Exposure, Response, and Technology Branch

Tel 984-287-3234
balshaw@niehs.nih.gov

P.O. Box 12233

Mail Drop K3-04

Durham, N.C. 27709

Delivery Instructions

Jennifer B. Collins
Health Specialist

Tel 984-287-3247
collins6@niehs.nih.gov

P.O. Box 12233

Mail Drop K3-12

Durham, N.C. 27709

Delivery Instructions

Yuxia Cui, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator

Tel 984-287-3251
yuxia.cui@nih.gov

P.O. Box 12233

Mail Drop K3-04

Durham, N.C. 27709

Delivery Instructions

Daniel T. Shaughnessy, Ph.D.
Health Scientist Administrator

Tel 984-287-3321
Fax 919-541-0146
shaughn1@niehs.nih.gov

P.O. Box 12233

Mail Drop K3-04

Durham, N.C. 27709

Delivery Instructions

Podcasts

• The Exposome
• The Microbiome