Community-level exposomics: a population-centered approach to address public health concerns

AI and omics technologies in biobanking: Applications and challenges for public health

OBJECTIVES

Considering the growing intersection of biobanks, artificial intelligence (AI) and omics research, and their critical impact on public health, this study aimed to explore the current and future public health implications and challenges of AI and omics-driven innovations in biobanking.

STUDY DESIGN

Narrative literature review.

METHODS

A structured literature search was conducted in Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and IEEExplore databases using relevant search terms. Additional references were identified through backward and forward citation chaining. Key themes were aggregated and analysed through thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Thirty-seven studies were selected for analysis, leading to the identification and categorisation of key developments. Several key technical, ethical and implementation challenges were also identified, including AI model selection, data accessibility, variability and quality issues, lack of robust and standardised validation methods, explainability, accountability, lack of transparency, algorithmic bias, privacy, security and fairness issues, and governance model selection. Based on these results, potential future scenarios of AI and omics integration in biobanking and their related public health implications were considered.

CONCLUSIONS

While AI and omics-driven innovations in biobanking offer specific transformative public health benefits, addressing their technical, ethical and implementation challenges is crucial. Robust regulatory frameworks, feasible governance models, access to quality data, interdisciplinary collaboration, and transparent and validated AI systems are essential to maximise benefits and mitigate risks. Further research and policy development are needed to support the responsible integration of these technologies in biobanking and public health.

Advancing translational exposomics: bridging genome, exposome and personalized medicine

Understanding the interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental and lifestyle exposures is essential for advancing precision medicine and public health. The exposome, defined as the sum of all environmental exposures an individual encounters throughout their lifetime, complements genomic data by elucidating how external and internal exposure factors influence health outcomes. This treatise highlights the emerging discipline of translational exposomics that integrates exposomics and genomics, offering a comprehensive approach to decipher the complex relationships between environmental and lifestyle exposures, genetic variability, and disease phenotypes. We highlight cutting-edge methodologies, including multi-omics technologies, exposome-wide association studies (EWAS), physiology-based biokinetic modeling, and advanced bioinformatics approaches. These tools enable precise characterization of both the external and the internal exposome, facilitating the identification of biomarkers, exposure-response relationships, and disease prediction and mechanisms. We also consider the importance of addressing socio-economic, demographic, and gender disparities in environmental health research. We emphasize how exposome data can contextualize genomic variation and enhance causal inference, especially in studies of vulnerable populations and complex diseases. By showcasing concrete examples and proposing integrative platforms for translational exposomics, this work underscores the critical need to bridge genomics and exposomics to enable precision prevention, risk stratification, and public health decision-making. This integrative approach offers a new paradigm for understanding health and disease beyond genetics alone.

Global research trends on the human exposome: a bibliometric analysis (2005-2024)

Exposome represents one of the most pressing issues in the environmental science research field. However, a comprehensive summary of worldwide human exposome research is lacking. We aimed to explore the bibliometric characteristics of scientific publications on the human exposome. A bibliometric analysis of human exposome publications from 2005 to December 2024 was conducted using the Web of Science in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Trends/hotspots were investigated with keyword frequency, co-occurrence, and thematic map. Sex disparities in terms of publications and citations were examined. From 2005 to 2024, 931 publications were published in 363 journals and written by 4529 authors from 72 countries. The number of publications tripled during the last 5 years. Publications written by females (51% as first authors and 34% as last authors) were cited fewer times (13,674) than publications written by males (22,361). Human exposome studies mainly focused on air pollution, metabolomics, chemicals (e.g., per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), endocrine-disrupting chemicals, pesticides), early-life exposure, biomarkers, microbiome, omics, cancer, and reproductive disorders. Social and built environment factors, occupational exposure, multi-exposure, digital exposure (e.g., screen use), climate change, and late-life exposure received less attention. Our results uncovered high-impact countries, institutions, journals, references, authors, and key human exposome research trends/hotspots. The use of digital exposome technologies (e.g., sensors, and wearables) and data science (e.g., artificial intelligence) has blossomed to overcome challenges and could provide valuable knowledge toward precision prevention. Exposome risk scores represent a promising research avenue.

The Relationship between Exposome and Microbiome

Currently, exposome studies include a raft of different monitoring tools, including remote sensors, smartphones, omics analyses, distributed lag models, etc. The similarity in structure between the exposome and the microbiota plus their functions led us to pose three pertinent questions from this viewpoint, looking at the actual relationship between the exposome and the microbiota. In terms of the exposome, a bistable equilibrium between health and disease depends on constantly dealing with an ever-changing totality of exposures that together shape an individual from conception to death. Regarding scientific knowledge, the exposome is still lagging in certain areas, like the importance of microorganisms in the equation. The human microbiome is defined as an aggregate assemblage of gut commensals that are hosted by our surfaces related to the external environment. Commensals' resistance to a variety of environmental exposures, such as antibiotic administration, confirms that a layer of these organisms is protected within the host. The exposome is a conceptual framework defined as the environmental component of the science-inspired systems ideology that shifts from a specificity-based medical approach to reasoning in terms of complexity. A parallel concept in population health research and precision public health is the human flourishing index, which aims to account for the numerous environmental factors that affect individual and population well-being beyond ambient pollution.

Early-life external exposome in children 2-5 years old in Colombia

Exposome studies are advancing in high-income countries to understand how multiple environmental exposures impact health. However, there is a significant research gap in low- and middle-income and tropical countries. We aimed to describe the spatiotemporal variation of the external exposome, its correlation structure between and within exposure groups, and its dimensionality. A one-year follow-up cohort study of 506 children under 5 in two cities in Colombia was conducted to evaluate asthma, acute respiratory infections, and DNA damage. We examined 48 environmental exposures during pregnancy and 168 during childhood in eight exposure groups, including atmospheric pollutants, natural spaces, meteorology, built environment, traffic, indoor exposure, and socioeconomic capital. The exposome was estimated using geographic information systems, remote sensing, spatiotemporal modeling, and questionnaires. The median age of children at study entry was 3.7 years (interquartile range: 2.9-4.3). Air pollution and natural spaces exposure decreased from pregnancy to childhood, while socioeconomic capital increased. The highest median correlations within exposure groups were observed in meteorology (r = 0.85), traffic (r = 0.83), and atmospheric pollutants (r = 0.64). Important correlations between variables from different exposure groups were found, such as atmospheric pollutants and meteorology (r = 0.76), natural spaces (r = -0.34), and the built environment (r = 0.53). Twenty principal components explained 70%, and 57 explained 95% of the total variance in the childhood exposome. Our findings show that there is an important spatiotemporal variation in the exposome of children under 5. This is the first characterization of the external exposome in urban areas of Latin America and highlights its complexity, but also the need to better characterize and understand the exposome in order to optimize its analysis and applications in local interventions aimed at improving the health conditions and well-being of the child population and contributing to environmental health decision-making.

DNA modifications: Biomarkers for the exposome?

The concept of the exposome is the encompassing of all the environmental exposures, both exogenous and endogenous, across the life course. Many, if not all, of these exposures can result in the generation of reactive species, and/or the modulation of cellular processes, that can lead to a breadth of modifications of DNA, the nature of which may be used to infer their origin. Because of their role in cell function, such modifications have been associated with various major human diseases, including cancer, and so their assessment is crucial. Historically, most methods have been able to only measure one or a few DNA modifications at a time, limiting the information available. With the development of DNA adductomics, which aims to determine the totality of DNA modifications, a far more comprehensive picture of the DNA adduct burden can be gained. Importantly, DNA adductomics can facilitate a "top-down" investigative approach whereby patterns of adducts may be used to trace and identify the originating exposure source. This, together with other 'omic approaches, represents a major tool for unraveling the complexities of the exposome and hence allow a better a understanding of the environmental origins of disease.