Reproductomics: An impending driver for exposome research

Abstract

In our quest to recognize the role of extrinsic and intrinsic environmental factors that can profoundly affect human health, the exposome paradigm proffers an exciting avenue of research. Continuous human biomonitoring would be unfeasible because the exposome is longitudinal and dynamic. Therefore, the reproductive life course of exposome should be put together from cross-sectional snapshots at critical periods such as in utero, early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Of course, over the following decades, the exposome paradigm will continue to evolve in terms of its conceptual and methodologic framework. Still, our overarching goal should be to delineate underlying molecular mechanisms that promote health while preventing disease at the population level.