HELIX

The project

Due to our ever changing environment and habits, exposure to environmental contaminants is growing increasingly complex. The totality of environmental (non-genetic) exposures from conception until old age is defined as the ‘exposome’. The HELIX ‘early-life exposome’ approach involves combining all environmental hazards that mothers and children are exposed to, and linking this to the health, growth and development of children. Pregnancy and the early years of life are well recognized to be periods of high susceptibility to environmental damage with lifetime consequences. This makes early life an important starting point for development of the exposome. The results of the project will help us to better understand how various types of exposures combine to influence our risk of disease.

The METO unit is involved in two workpackages, WP1 - Novel Tools for Individual Exposures and WP3 - Integrating Multiple Exposures, and is the leader of Task 3.1 (Predicting target tissue dose through PBPK models). In WP1, our unit contributes in defining the questionnaires for the cohorts. The main contribution of INERIS is in WP3. The METO unit will apply a lifetime PBPK model to predict the concentrations of the chemicals of interest in target tissues at critical time periods, and will test the representativeness of a single biomarker measurement to establish uncertainties in exposure assessment.

Related articles

• Vrijheid M, Slama R, Robinson O, Chatzi L, Coen M, van den Hazel P, Thomsen C, Wright J, Athersuch TJ, Avellana N, Basagaña X, Brochot C, Bucchini L, Bustamante M, Carracedo A, Casas M, Estivill X, Fairley L, van Gent D, Gonzalez JR, Granum B, Gražulevičienė R, Gutzkow KB, Julvez J, Keun HC, Kogevinas M, McEachan RR, Meltzer HM, Sabidó E, Schwarze PE, Siroux V, Sunyer J, Want EJ, Zeman F, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ. 2014. The Human Early-Life Exposome (HELIX): Project Rationale and Design. Environ Health Perspect. 122(6):535-44.

• Brochot, C., Casas, M., Manzano-Salgado, C., Zeman, F.A., Schettgen, T., Vrijheid, M., Bois, F.Y., 2019. Prediction of maternal and foetal exposures to perfluoroalkyl compounds in a Spanish birth cohort using toxicokinetic modelling. Toxicology and applied pharmacology 379, 114640.

• Casas, M., Basagana, X., Sakhi, A.K., Haug, L.S., Philippat, C., Granum, B., Manzano-Salgado, C.B., Brochot, C., Zeman, F., de Bont, J., Andrusaityte, S., Chatzi, L., Donaire-Gonzalez, D., Giorgis-Allemand, L., Gonzalez, J.R., Gracia-Lavedan, E., Grazuleviciene, R., Kampouri, M., Lyon-Caen, S., Panella, P., Petraviciene, I., Robinson, O., Urquiza, J., Vafeiadi, M., Vernet, C., Waiblinger, D., Wright, J., Thomsen, C., Slama, R., Vrijheid, M., 2018. Variability of urinary concentrations of non-persistent chemicals in pregnant women and school-aged children. Environment International 121, 561-573.

• Maitre, L., de Bont, J., Casas, M., Robinson, O., Aasvang, G.M., Agier, L., Andrusaityte, S., Ballester, F., Basagana, X., Borras, E., Brochot, C., Bustamante, M., Carracedo, A., de Castro, M., Dedele, A., Donaire-Gonzalez, D., Estivill, X., Evandt, J., Fossati, S., Giorgis-Allemand, L., Gonzalez, J.R., Granum, B., Grazuleviciene, R., Gutzkow, K.B., Haug, L.S., Hernandez-Ferrer, C., Heude, B., Ibarluzea, J., Julvez, J., Karachaliou, M., Keun, H.C., Krog, N.H., Lau, C.H.E., Leventakou, V., Lyon-Caen, S., Manzano, C., Mason, D., McEachan, R., Meltzer, H.M., Petraviciene, I., Quentin, J., Roumeliotaki, T., Sabido, E., Saulnier, P.J., Siskos, A.P., Siroux, V., Sunyer, J., Tamayo, I., Urquiza, J., Vafeiadi, M., van Gent, D., Vives-Usano, M., Waiblinger, D., Warembourg, C., Chatzi, L., Coen, M., van den Hazel, P., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J., Slama, R., Thomsen, C., Wright, J., Vrijheid, M., 2018. Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) study: a European population-based exposome cohort. Bmj Open 8.