Advancing tools for human early lifecourse exposome research and translation (ATHLETE): Project overview

Vrijheid, Martine; Basagaña Flores, Xavier; González, Juan Ramón; Porcel, Joana; Bustamante Pineda, Mariona; Casas Sanahuja, Maribel; Dadvand, Payam; Fossati, Serena; Guxens Junyent, Mònica; Maitre, Léa; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark J.; Ortiz, Rodney; Stratakis, Nikos; Sunyer Deu, Jordi; Slama, Rémy

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/EE9.0000000000000166

Advancing tools for human early lifecourse exposome research and translation (ATHLETE): Project overview

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Vrijheid M, Basagaña X, Gonzalez JR, Jaddoe VWV, Jensen G, Keun HC et al. Advancing tools for human early lifecourse exposome research and translation (ATHLETE): Project overview. Environ Epidemiol. 2021 Oct 1;5(5):e166. DOI: 10.1097/EE9.0000000000000166

Abstract

Early life stages are vulnerable to environmental hazards and present important windows of opportunity for lifelong disease prevention. This makes early life a relevant starting point for exposome studies. The Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation (ATHLETE) project aims to develop a toolbox of exposome tools and a Europe-wide exposome cohort that will be used to systematically quantify the effects of a wide range of community- and individual-level environmental risk factors on mental, cardiometabolic, and respiratory health outcomes and associated biological pathways, longitudinally from early pregnancy through to adolescence. Exposome tool and data development include as follows: (1) a findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) data infrastructure for early life exposome cohort data, including 16 prospective birth cohorts in 11 European countries; (2) targeted and nontargeted approaches to measure a wide range of environmental exposures (urban, chemical, physical, behavioral, social); (3) advanced statistical and toxicological strategies to analyze complex multidimensional exposome data; (4) estimation of associations between the exposome and early organ development, health trajectories, and biological (metagenomic, metabolomic, epigenetic, aging, and stress) pathways; (5) intervention strategies to improve early life urban and chemical exposomes, co-produced with local communities; and (6) child health impacts and associated costs related to the exposome. Data, tools, and results will be assembled in an openly accessible toolbox, which will provide great opportunities for researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders, beyond the duration of the project. ATHLETE's results will help to better understand and prevent health damage from environmental exposures and their mixtures from the earliest parts of the life course onward.