Research Severo Ochoa Exposome Hub
Research

Exposome Hub

Exposome Hub website

Environmental hazards account for a probably large, but not well characterised, proportion of the burden of disease. The exposome, described as "the totality of human environmental exposures from conception onwards", recognizes that individuals are exposed simultaneously to a multitude of different environmental factors and takes a holistic approach to the discovery of etiological factors for disease. The exposome’s main advantage over traditional ‘one-exposure-one-disease’ study approaches is that it provides an unprecedented conceptual framework for the study of multiple environmental hazards (urban, chemical, lifestyle, social) and their combined effects.

Promises of the Exposome

  • Holistic → Complex system, multiple exposures, mixtures.
  • Life-course → Temporal sequence.
  • New tools/technology → Coverage and accuracy of exposures (omics, sensors, etc.).
  • Internal exposome → Early biological responses.
  • Untargeted discovery → Unknown exposures.

The characterisation of the exposome and its related health effects requires continuous innovation in the development of tools and methods, including for exposure assessment, integration of omics markers, data infrastructures, and complex data analysis. Interdisciplinary collaboration is key to this.

ISGlobal has established itself at the forefront of international exposome research through its coordination of, and partnership in, several large international exposome projects funded by the European Commission (see projects).

ISGlobal’s Exposome Research Hub brings together a cross-faculty network of researchers across the following programmes:

This in order to promote excellence, innovation, and collaboration in exposome research, and to meet the training needs of researchers in this field. 

Large Exposome Projects at ISGlobal

Lines of Research across ISGlobal Programmes

  • Internal exposome, chemical exposures, endocrine disruptors.
  • External exposome, urban environment (e.g. air pollution, noise, built environment including green spaces), GIS-based exposure characterization, and modelling and measurement of exposures.
  • Working-life exposome, harmonisation of occupational exposure assessment throughout Europe (EuroJEM).
  • Biological responses/internal exposome through omics technologies, epigenetics, transcriptomics, inflammatory proteins, allostatic load, accelerated ageing, gut microbiome, metabolomics.
  • Cohort implementation and harmonization: mega-cohorts for occupational health, longitudinal mother-child cohorts, adult cohorts, mega-cohorts from administrative data.
  • Exposure and health: mental health and neurodevelopment, cardio-metabolic health, obesity, respiratory health.
  • Bioinformatics for multi-omics integration, federated data analysis (analyses when data are stored on federated databases or, more generally, in different repositories, e.g. Datashield).
  • Advanced data modelling for exposure mixtures and causal inference.
  • Characterization of the air from urban and rural environments: determination of physical properties of particles (from coarse to ultrafine particles), analysis of chemical (metals, non-metals, etc.) and biological  (bacteria, fungi and viruses) composition. AIRLAB: core facility laboratory.

Our Team

Hub Coordinator

Hub Project Manager

Hub Committee

Highlighted Projects

ATHLETE

Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation

EPHOR

Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research

LIFECYCLE

Early-life stressors and LifeCycle health

EXPANSE

EXposome Powered tools for healthy living in urbAN SEttings

Other projects

See Past Projects

ESAIRE

Engaging Citizens in Science: Promoting the Viability of Participatory Sensing for Monitoring Air and Environmental Quality

iMAP Barcelona

The international Mind, Activities and urban Places in Barcelona study (iMAP Barcelona study): Building the evidence base on the relationships between environment, active living and cognitive health

PROactive

Physical Activity as a Crucial Patient Reported Outcome in COPD

POLLAR

Impact Of Pollution on Asthma and Rhinitis

Fotovoz

Las Voces de los Afectados por la Nefropatía Mesoamericana

UBDPOLICY

The Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for POLICY Making

TOLIFE

Combining Artificial Intelligence and smart sensing TOward better management and improved quality of LIFE in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

EGG/EAGLE

Early Genetics Growth/Early Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology

PACE

Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics

The Lungfit Project

Socioeconomic Status, Physical Activity, and Respiratory Health in Pregnant Women, Children, and Adolescents

ExPEC-TEEN

Prenatal Exposure to Environmental Pollutants and Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health of the Teenagers

HELIX-NAFLD

Developmental origins of child liver injury: the effect of early life environmental exposures

UrbaMet

Entorno Urbano y Salud Cardiometabólica desde el Nacimiento hasta la Adolescencia

NutriPROGRAM

Early-life Nutritional Programming of Metabolic Health through Epigenetic Pathways

The APBO Project

Air Pollution and Birth Outcomes: Windows of Exposure and Health and Economic Impact Assessment

INMA-Ado-Sueño

Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, Noise, and Sleep Disorders in Adolescence

ANSES HyPAXE

Prenatal Exposure to a Family of Short Half-Life Endocrine Disruptors, Dysregulation of the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis and Potential Implication for Child Neurodevelopment at Early Age

EXPO-ENFANTS

Caractérisation des usages et de l’exposition aux radiofréquences induite par les dispositifs de communication mobiles chez les enfants

Lilli

Light at Night Exposure and Sleep Quality

EMBRYORAD

Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields, Other Environmental Factors, and Development of the Embryo and Fetus

NutinBrain

The role of seafood and nut consumption on human neurodevelopment from pregnancy to adolescence

SECTEUR

Health Sector Engagement for the Copernicus Climate Change Services: Translating European Users Requirements