Growing evidence suggests the gut microbiome mediates the impact of environmental exposures on human health.
As a critical source of metabolic capacity, symbiotic bacteria process xenobiotics—including pollutants, drugs, and dietary metabolites—while modulating host energy metabolism. Consequently, the microbiome is both a target of environmental stressors and a potential mediator of their health effects.
This project quantifies these relationships by harnessing large cohorts with existing microbiome data, enriched with geographically imputed exposome metrics and metabolomics. Additionally, our research uncovers the temporal dynamics of the gut microbiome in relation to longitudinal environmental and host-specific changes.
The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated seventy percent of the chronic disease burden. Where we live, what we eat, how much we exercise, the air we breathe and whom we associate with; all of these environmental factors play a role. The combination of these factors over the life course is called the exposome. There is general (scientific) consensus that understanding more about the exposome will help explain the current burden of disease and that it provides entry points for prevention and ...
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