About us

In 2018 the Utrecht Exposome Hub was established to stimulate productive and long-lasting interdisciplinary collaborations on understanding how our environment influences our health.

Within the Utrecht Exposome Hub, 45 researchers from different research areas, together with public and private partners such as TNO, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), are investigating the exposome and map the influences on our health. 

We combine research on both the internal exposome and external exposome

Exposome

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.

In addition to the external exposome, we also focus on the internal exposome: we investigate, on a large scale, the role of the microbiome in interaction with various environmental factors. By combining the internal with the external exposome, we aim to develop successful prevention and intervention strategies in amongst others cardiovascular, mental, infectious, and immunological diseases.