EXPIN

The Exposome and EXPIN AI

Understanding how your environment shapes your health.

Following the completion of the Human Genome Project in the early 2000's, scientists realized that chronic diseases are more than just the result of "bad genes." They are also the result of an individual's environmental exposures. In fact, almost 80% of all chronic diseases can be linked to environmental factors. In 2005, Dr. Chris Wild coined the term "exposome," defined as a person's accumulated environmental exposures from conception onwards. In 2025, a formal definition was proposed stating the exposome is the integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological and (psycho)social influences that "impact biology." In brief, anything that ever happened to a person, or their parents, makes up their personal exposome.

Exposome diagram showing silhouettes of a man and woman with environmental factors such as alcohol, diet, toxins, climate, and drugs in a circle around them

Individual exposomes contain dozens to hundreds of foreign chemicals, many of which are linked to human diseases (e.g., diabetes, autoimmune disease, cancer). It is important to remember that the human body is extraordinarily resistant to stress. Although people are constantly exposed to countless chemical pollutants, as well as physical, social and physiological stresses, most of the time there are no long term health effects. It is undeniable however, that many diseases are caused by or exacerbated by the exposome (e.g., smoking and chronic respiratory disease, asbestos and mesothelioma).

The Exposome Intelligence Company has developed a cutting edge artificial intelligence called EXPIN AI that creates an individual's expotype; a digital twin of a person's exposome. The expotype is created by linking patient interview information to our proprietary database of chemical-disease interactions, geographic information and scientific as well as anecdotal literature to identify environmental contributors to chronic illness. The expotype can then be shared with physicians to develop a scientifically-based treatment strategy.

What is the Exposome

Following the completion of the Human Genome Project in 20011, scientists realized that chronic diseases were more than just the consequence of "bad genes." They are also the result of an individual's environmental exposures. In fact, >70% of all chronic diseases can be linked to environmental factors.2 To address this disparity between genes and the environment, in 2005, Dr. Chris Wild coined the term "exposome."3 He defined it as a person's accumulated environmental exposures from conception onwards.

Recognizing that the majority of chronic disease are affected by the exposome, in 2025 the Center for Innovative Exposomics Banbury Exposomics Consortium4 proposed a formal definition to achieve a thorough understanding of how chronic diseases are linked environmental factors. They defined the exposome as the integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological and (psycho)social influences that "impact biology."5

In contrast to traditional environmental health, exposomics, the study of the exposome, includes such diverse fields as chemistry, physics and biology from the molecular to ecosystem levels. Exposomics also incorporates epidemiology clinical medicine, psychology, law, sociology, economics and risk and hazard assessment.

References

  1. Venter, J.C., et al. (2001) The sequence of the human genome. Science 291, 1304-1351.
  2. Rappaport, S.M. and Smith, M.T. (2010) Epidemiology. Environment and disease risks. Science 330, 460-461.
  3. Wild, C.P. (2005) Complementing the genome with an "exposome": the outstanding challenge of environmental exposure measurement in molecular epidemiology. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14, 1847-1850.
  4. Center for Innovative Exposomics (2026) Banbury Consortium. https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/centers/center-innovative-exposomics/banbury-consortium.
  5. Miller, G.W. (2025) Integrating exposomics into biomedicine. Science 388, 356-358.