Building on the momentum of the Exposome Moonshot Forum and the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2026 Annual Meeting, the field of exposomics was featured in the February 18, 2026 issue of The Economist.
Based in London and founded in 1843, The Economist is a weekly print magazine (>1M circulation) with daily digital updates. The article provided a unique perspective that differed from the classical scientific coverage.
Please see the Economist website for the full story.
"The Human Exposome Project will map how environmental factors shape health."
NEXUS MPI Dr. Gary Miller comments “It has been great seeing the exposome receive attention from many news outlets, but for the most part these have been top-tier scientific outlets. Getting coverage in a global financial magazine is on a different level. We were thrilled to see a feature article in the Economist that emerged from the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2026 panel.”
Excerpts*
The Economist on the Human Exposome Project:
“...it makes the Human Genome Project look easy.”
The author of the article commented on our ambitions:
“...to create a Human Exposome Project. It is ambitious because it aims to do for environmental influences on the body what the Human Genome Project did for genetic ones.”
and on what the team is trying to do:
“is the creation of an entirely new discipline—exposomics. This would look at all types of environmental exposures— physical, biological, psychological and social, as well as chemical— systematically, and from conception to grave.”
Regarding the use of artificial intelligence for exposomics, the author notes:
“They believe models analogous to large language models could make sense of multiple different environmental factors and how they interact, as well as correlating these with disease states, thus linking cause and effect more precisely. By studying blood chemistry, for example, such a model could search not only for pollutants that might have been absorbed, but also for metabolic chemicals which reflect other types of environmental influence.”
In the closing remarks the author comments on the potential of delivering value:
“None of this, of course, guarantees success for the hard-core-integrationist approach to studying the exposome... But it does at least look promising. And even if they fail to achieve their most ambitious goals, in the very act of trying to bring a unified approach to the “nurture” side of the eternal debate about the relative effects of nurture and nature, the exposomicists are performing a valuable function.”
What is the Exposome?
The Banbury Exposomics Consortium, published a foundational perspective in Science titled “Integrating exposomics into biomedicine.” This paper offers the biomedical field a unified and operational definition of the “exposome” and the field of “exposomics”, addressing a knowledge gap as the field had long lacked a clear, succinct definition since the exposome was first introduced by Dr. Christopher Wild in 2005.
“The exposome is posited as an integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological, and (psycho)social influences that impact biology. The field of exposomics thus examines the comprehensive and cumulative effects of these factors by integrating data from interdisciplinary methodologies and data streams to drive discovery”
Importance of the 2026 AAAS Panel on Exposomics?
The 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) brought together global leaders across science, public health, policy, and innovation to address some of the key scientific challenges in the world today. The NEXUS team was pleased that the field of exposomics was part of the lineup.
The panel “How the Human Exposome Will Unlock Better Health and Medicine” convened global leaders in the field of exposomics to discuss the latest advances in understanding the totality of environmental exposures across the lifespan, and highlights the developments that have been made in the field since the signing of the Washington Declaration at the Exposome Moonshot Forum in Washington D.C in May of 2025. This panel included Gary Miller, Columbia University, Jana Klánová, Masaryrk University, and Thomas Hartung, Johns Hopkins University. The panel was moderated by Clive Cookson from the Financial Times, and co-organized by Aidan Gilligan, SciCom, and Dr. Hartung.
Dr. Miller Panel Presentation: “The Human Exposome Project: The Biggest Public Health Opportunity of Our Time”
Dr. Hartung Panel Presentation “The Human Exposome Project: Putting Global Partnerships on the Map”
Dr. Klánová Panel Presentation “The Human Exposome Project Roadmap: Next Steps from Conception to Delivery”
This is not the first time that the Exposome was featured at AAAS, in 2025 NEXUS colleagues were involved in the session, “After the Genome: What Comes Next and Are We Ready?” The session was organized by NEXUS ChemBio Analytical Science Hub Co-lead Thomas Metz, PhD and data scientist Katrina Waters, PhD of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
In this panel, Dr. Miller explained how his team is using exposomics to study environmental factors and how they affect biological processes to influence living organisms. Additionally, Dr. Hartung presented in the session “The Three Legged Stool of Trust in Science” with his talk “ Shaping the Future: Towards a Human Exposome Project” he highlighted his efforts in the field of exposomics.
This presentation demonstrates the progress the field of exposomics has made in just one year, highlighting both the growing collaboration and scientific developments. 2025 was characterized by key meetings and conferences that helped advance the field of exposomics including the Exposome Moonshot Forum and the Genomics Meets Exposomics meeting, which provided an excellent opportunity for members of the field to engage, and to expand the exposomics community in the United States and around the world.
Learn more about Exposomics at the 2026 AAAS Meeting.
There are several initiatives helping the field move forward.
What is NEXUS?
NEXUS is led by Gary Miller, PhD, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Chirag Patel, PhD, Harvard Medical School, and Rima Habre, ScD, University of Southern California.
It consists of four hubs of highly interconnected and globally distributed team members: the ChemBio Analytical Sciences Hub, the Geospatial Sciences Hub, the Data Sciences Hub, and the Administrative and Stakeholder Engagement Hub. NEXUS aims to drive innovation to revolutionize how the biomedical and public health communities think about environmental drivers of disease by creating new tools, investigator research networks, and methods that make exposomics a core part of scientific and biomedical research.
Learn more: https://www.nexus-exposomics.org/about.html
What is the Global Exposome Forum?
GEF exists in response to the current moment in which exposomics is reaching full scientific maturity and now requires political and social investment and acceptance to make an impact and radically redefine public health.
By bringing science, policy, and society into conversation, the Forum supports a more coordinated, synchronous, truly global approach to advancing exposomic research and positive impact on health and society.
Learn more: https://globalexposomeforum.org/
What is EIRENE RI?
EIRENE RI intends to support large-scale research for the interdisciplinary assessment of environmental determinants of health, including indoor and outdoor environment factors, lifestyle, socioeconomics, and the individual’s ability to cope with various stressors such as infection or disease.
EIRENE RI will provide harmonised workflows and integrated services for data and sample collection, as well as knowledge and tools that will be made accessible to academic researchers, private companies, public authorities, and citizens through the EIRENE open-access system and the EIRENE knowledge hub.
Learn more: https://eirene.eu/ https://roadmap2021.esfri.eu/projects-and-landmarks/browse-the-catalogue/eirene-ri/
What is IHEN?
Through an International Board, the project will seek interactions with all global regions.
Learn more: https://humanexposome.net/about-the-project/
*NEXUS has purchased the rights from the publisher for the distribution of The Economist article text.