Advancing tools for human early lifecourse exposome research and translation (ATHLETE). Project overview
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
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.
Date Issued
2021-10-01
Date Acceptance
2021-06-28
Citation
Environmental Epidemiology, 2021, 5 (5)
ISSN
2474-7882
Publisher
Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Journal / Book Title
Environmental Epidemiology
Volume
5
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The Environmental Epidemiology. All rights reserved. This article is available under the Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license and permits non-commercial use of the work as published, without adaptation or alteration provided the work is fully attributed.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34934888
Grant Number
874583
Subjects
Adolescent health
Child health
Early life
Exposome
Exposure assessment
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
ARTN e166