Merging the exposome into an integrated framework for “omics” sciences
Elliott J. Price,
Chiara M. Vitale,
Gary W. Miller,
Arthur David,
Robert Barouki,
Karine Audouze,
Douglas I. Walker,
Jean-Philippe Antignac,
Xavier Coumoul,
Vincent Bessonneau,
Jana Klánová
Affiliations
Elliott J. Price
RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno 60200, Czech Republic; Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Kamenice 753/5, Brno 62500, Czech Republic; Corresponding author
Chiara M. Vitale
RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno 60200, Czech Republic
Gary W. Miller
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Arthur David
Univ Rennes, EHESP, Inserm, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail) – UMR_S 1085, Rennes 35000, France
Robert Barouki
Université de Paris, T3S, Inserm UMR S-1124, Paris 75006, France; Service de Biochimie Métabolomique et Protéomique, Hôpital Necker Enfants Malades, AP-HP, Paris, France
Karine Audouze
Université de Paris, T3S, Inserm UMR S-1124, Paris 75006, France
Douglas I. Walker
Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Jean-Philippe Antignac
Oniris, INRAE, LABERCA, Nantes, France
Xavier Coumoul
Université de Paris, T3S, Inserm UMR S-1124, Paris 75006, France
Vincent Bessonneau
Univ Rennes, EHESP, Inserm, Irset (Institut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail) – UMR_S 1085, Rennes 35000, France; Silent Spring Institute, Newton, MA, USA
Jana Klánová
RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, Brno 60200, Czech Republic
Summary: The exposome concept encourages holistic consideration of the non-genetic factors (environmental exposures including lifestyle) that influence an individual’s health over their life course. However, disconnect between the concept and practical application has promoted divergent interpretations of the exposome across disciplines and reinforced separation of the environmental (emphasizing exposures) and biological (emphasizing responses) research communities. In particular, while knowledge of biological responses can help to distinguish actual (i.e. experienced) from potential exposures, the inclusion of endogenous processes has generated confusion about the position of the exposome in a multi-omics systems biology context. We propose a reattribution of “exposome” to exclusively represent the totality of contact with external factors that a biological entity experiences, and introduce the term “functional exposomics” to denote the systematic study of exposure-phenotype interaction. This reoriented definition of the exposome allows a more readily integrable dataset for multi-omics and systems biology research.