Our health is shaped by environmental factors that we humans are exposed to on a daily basis: what we eat, the air we breathe, our social interactions and lifestyle choices such as smoking and exercising. The sum of all these environmental drivers of health and diseases is called the exposome.
The exposome concept is trying to capture everything to understand which, how, in what quantities, and in what circumstances environmental drivers have an effect on our health. This very complex set of elements is continually evolving, and to map it is a challenging undertaking. The Utrecht Exposome hub combines research on both the external exposome and on the internal exposome (focusing on the microbiome). By combining this research, we aim to develop successful prevention and intervention strategies in amongst others cardiovascular, mental, infectious, and immunological diseases.