How mass spectrometry technology and emerging AI tools are powering the growing field of exposomics
The “exposome” encompasses all the environmental and lifestyle factors that influence our health. In contrast to traditional omics fields focused on internal biological systems, exposomics investigates how external exposures – such as the air we breathe and the food we eat – contribute to disease. Though the field is still young, exposomics has the potential to shape our understanding of the links between the environment and health outcomes.
To find out about recent breakthroughs, trends, and the role of mass spectrometry in exposomics research, we spoke with Susan Bird, Metabolomics Program Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Can you explain what the exposome is, and how it differs from more established fields like genomics?
The exposome is the accumulation of all of the exposures a person gathers through their life. These exposures can be environmental, pharmaceutical or even nutritional, and any can contribute to disease or other pathologies. The exposome is influenced by factors beyond what your body naturally produces and is therefore arguably a better representation of your environment. Your exposure will differ from that of someone who lives in another country or nearby town, for example, due to differences in factors such as air quality or diet.
When did this field begin to take off and why is exposomics becoming such a critical area of study in understanding human health and disease?
The term “exposomics” was first used nearly two decades ago, so it’s a fairly new field, relatively speaking. The main difference between genomics and exposomics is that genomics is predictive – with it, we can easily predict how our body works, the proteins it makes, and how our cells work. Exposomics, on the other hand, by nature cannot be predictive due to the various environmental factors which impact the exposome.
Given the number of variables involved when analyzing the exposome, there’s still much more to be discovered within exposomics. Everything – ranging from air and water quality to food sourcing and pesticides – can impact the exposome, and understanding these impacts can help scientists and researchers better understand human health and disease.
What are the biggest analytical challenges in exposomics?
Beyond the aforementioned unknown factors, one challenge associated with exposomics is the trace levels of some exposures. No matter how small, these exposures can have a significant impact on the exposome. The dynamic range of exposures currently studied, being low or high level, results in big families of compounds. PFAS, identified as a known toxin by the EPA and other organizations, is one of the better-known examples of this. Due to constant, slight changes in PFAS, their presence becomes increasingly difficult to track and regulate.
How is mass spectrometry technology enabling researchers to better understand the exposome?
Technologies that use mass spectrometry are enabling researchers to better understand the effect of environmental factors on the exposome, as well as on human health in general. These technologies provide one of the best ways to identify compounds within a sample – whether known or unknown – that are vital to exposomics research. Some of these technologies enable quantitation and discovery and are very impactful in high resolution imaging.
When looking at exposures such as PFAS, it’s important that our analysis of compound families runs deep, so we can detect and precisely measure exposures using more advanced technologies. Typically, one detector focuses on the known compounds and exposures, while another is used for the unknown. However, there are now tools available, such as the Orbitrap Astral Mass Spectrometer, that can accurately measure known or unknown compounds, enabling researchers to deploy targeted assays or analyze additional exposures and their variability over time.
Has there been any recent research published in this field that has caught your eye?
We’ve seen a lot of exposomic research recently, most notably within women’s health and the effects of specific exposures dependent on sex and gender. As a woman, I for one am particularly interested in how environmental exposures may increase the chances of breast cancer and other diseases. We're also hopeful that exposomic research can help us gain a greater understanding of how exposures affect populations differently, and the measures we can take to ensure equitable support for everyone.
Is there anything missing from the analytical “toolkit” for exposomics?
As we move towards further integration of AI and machine learning into the lab, these technologies will inevitably help the growth and evolution of exposomics. With their increased efficiency and ability to process copious amounts of data, the effect on exposomic research can only be positive. Researchers can then use data from other fields – such as metabolomics – to aid exposomic study. An improved understanding of the impact of certain exposures compounded with the ability to dive deeper into research using AI tools should expedite new scientific discoveries in the field.
Looking ahead, what will be the lasting impact of exposomics on human health?
We’ve already begun to see the impacts of exposomics research in real time. The topic of PFAS, for example, is symbolic of the ever-growing need to research the effects of exposures on human health. New chemicals are regularly added to the nutritional blacklist – such as the ban of red dye 40 in certain states in the US – due to harmful effects. With this in mind, I hope that once we understand how these different chemicals affect our health, more universal bans to reduce exposures will follow, opposed to more state-by-state approaches.
Exposomics is a critical and emerging field of science that will have an enormous impact on our health, particularly once we have a more refined list of contaminants we should limit our exposure to. Ultimately, this will impact how we can work with manufacturers, regulators, and leading scientists to improve environmental and human health.
Newsletters
Receive the latest analytical science news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.
