Hendrik is a PhD student at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). He has a background in human gut microbiome research and toxicology. Within his project, he aims to understand the influence of exposome factors—specifically xenobiotics such as environmental chemicals—on the microbiome, linking these effects to human health.
Within Exposome-NL, the main goal of Hendrik’s PhD project is to understand to what extent (chemical) factors such as pesticide exposure and air pollution shape the human gut microbiome and health. To this end, he uses large datasets from both infants and adults with extensive phenotyping, allowing him to link the exposome, microbiome, and health across different stages of life.
I aim to help elucidate the connections between the exposome and the microbiome.
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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