Metabolomics and The Exposome

The human exposome represents the totality of all environmental exposures over a lifetime, from conception to death, and the effect of these exposures to human health and disease. In recent years metabolomics has become a powerful tool to characterise these environmental exposures and the human biomolecular response to these exposures at the level of metabolism. Metabolomics plays an important role in understanding the link between environmental pollution and human health, elucidating the environmental etiology of disease, identifying routes of exposure, identifying new biomarkers associated with the exposome with links to health events. Moreover, metabolomics can potentially identify population groups that may be more susceptible to adverse health responses. The study of the exposome and metabolomics is an integral part of environmental health research and will inform policy makers in ways to prevent or mitigate the effects of environmental exposure and pollution on a population level.

In this research topic, we invite all primary research, reviews, perspectives, commentaries, and opinions relevant to the use of metabolomics in exposome research. This includes articles relevant to: targeted and untargeted metabolomics; advances in analytical technology and protocol development including the use of stable isotopes; xenobiotic and endogenous metabolism; environmental and molecular toxicology; environmental, dietary, occupational and social exposure; human biomonitoring; emerging pollutants, environmental monitoring; the exposome and biology of humans and indicator species; microbial metabolism and the microbiome; metabolic phenotyping and environmental health; relevant work in bioinformatics, novel statistical approaches, computational chemistry, cheminformatics & databases; cohort studies for environmental health research; intervention and mitigation strategies; meta-analyses and inter-laboratory studies; fundamental concepts and hypothesis in the application of metabolomics to exposome research.