Future directions of exposome research

As HEDIMED activities are coming to a close, we want like to give you a glimpse into the future of exposome research.

Firstly, we would like to indroduce the Exposome Moonshot Forum, held on May 12-15, 2025 in Washington, DC.

The Forum aims to advance the Human Exposome Project, a global effort to map environmental exposures and their impact on human health, with substantive discussions, high-impact presentations, and intensive collective priority setting. To spread the knowledge about our research for global exposome community, HEDIMED will also join the Exposome Moonshot Forum. The forum is an excellent way to improve collaboration and global knowledge about the challenges and benefits of exposomic research. It will bring together noted leaders across many diverse fields to collaborate in future projects related to exposomic topics.

As HEDIMED, we primarily aim to share our newly created knowledge about immune mediated diseases (type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, allergies and asthma) among small children. Furthermore, we hope to find new ways and border-crossing collaboration to solve these complex challenges related to the development mechanisms of the targeted diseases. 

From the perspective of HEDIMED Consortium, we should use exposomics to better understand the common determinants of immune mediated diseases, while using novel technologies and data from several cohorts. Once we better understand how the environment affects our health, we can help policymakers make decisions that protect the environment in ways that support human health and reduce immune-related diseases.

Secondly, another big European initiative for exposome research is the International Human Exposome Network, IHEN.

IHEN partly builds on EHEN Network’s legacy. As exposome research is growing fast, but global efforts remain scattered, the IHEN project brings together partners from nine countries to build a global network and boost collaboration in exposome research over the next three years.

IHEN aims to gather and share exposome tools and resources globally, and test them through demonstrator projects. In parallel, IHEN will engage with stakeholders through consultations and training initiatives to identify research gaps, shape a future roadmap, and strengthen collaboration across the exposome community.

To conclude, the future of exposome research is just beginning — and HEDIMED is honored to be part of its foundation.

Exposome Moonshot Forum HEDIMED representative: Juha Pajula, VTT Research Centre of Finland, juha.pajula@vtt.fi

IHEN contact: info@humanexposome.net