HEALS is born: a European project to identify the exposome and its impact on health
To develop an integrated methodology to identify and decode an individualʼs exposome, that is, the mapping of the totality of exposures to toxic compounds and environmental stressors throughout a person´s life span, is the main goal of the European Project HEALS (Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Survey). It has a budget of 14.8 M€ and it is co-funded by the European Union's 7th Framework Programme.
To develop an integrated methodology to identify and decode an individualʼs exposome, that is, the mapping of the totality of exposures to toxic compounds and environmental stressors throughout a person´s life span, is the main goal of the European Project HEALS (Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large Population Survey). It has a budget of 14.8 M€ and it is co-funded by the European Union's 7th Framework Programme.
The five-year project HEALS will be implemented by an international consortium, led by Pierre et Marie Curie University and composed by 29 partners from 15 European countries. One of these partners is the Barcelona Science Park (PCB); it collaborates by means of the Experimental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology Unit (UTOX) and the Proteomics Platform. Miquel Borràs, professor from the Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of UB and director of UTOX, coordinates PCBʼs collaboration in the project.
The objective of the exposome is to be used as a tool aimed at simultaneously identifying, characterizing and quantifying the exogenous and endogenous exposures to contaminants, that is, those modifiable risk factors that predispose to and predict environmental-related diseases throughout a person´s life span.