Meeting Report — Genomics Meets Exposomics: Advancing Gene x Environment Science

Author: L. Michelle Bennett (LMBennett Consulting, LLC)

In Brief

In October 2025, researchers gathered at the Mendel Museum in Brno—the birthplace of genetics—to explore the integration of genomics and exposomics. The meeting, inspired by the city’s own layered history of transformation, brought together leaders from across scientific domains to chart a path toward understanding how genes and environment jointly shape health. Through focused presentations, deep discussion, and intentionally designed time for connection, participants built shared understanding and identified key priorities for advancing exposome research within biomedical science. The resulting framework will inform a forthcoming white paper and ongoing collaborations aimed at accelerating discovery across disciplines.

Brno — Where Integration Begins

When we gathered in Brno, Czech Republic, to explore how genomics and exposomics might come together, it was hard not to feel the weight—and inspiration—of place. Brno is a city built through integration: medieval, Baroque, and modernist layers meeting in one living landscape. It’s a city that shows what happens when eras, ideas, and aesthetics coexist rather than compete.

Our meeting took place at the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas, where Gregor Mendel conducted his now-legendary pea plant experiments more than 160 years ago. In the courtyard where Mendel once tended his plants, the field of genetics quietly began.

He saw order hidden within variation—laws of inheritance that would not be recognized until long after his death. Standing there, surrounded by the same walls that sheltered his work, felt both grounding and galvanizing: we were not just meeting in Brno; we were meeting at the birthplace of genetics itself.

A few blocks away lies the Labyrinth beneath the Cabbage Market—a network of cellars and passageways once hidden from view. That underground world is an apt metaphor for exposomics, a field still charting the unseen layers of human experience: the exposures, interactions, and influences that shape biology from the outside in. Genomics maps what is coded; exposomics seeks what is lived.

At the Old Town Hall, a crocodile—Brno’s famous “dragon”—hangs from the rafters, a relic of folklore and imagination. It’s a reminder that new knowledge often begins in misunderstanding, and that progress depends on curiosity as much as certainty. And above the city, Špilberk Castle stands as both fortress and former prison—proof that structures built to protect ideas can, if left closed too long, confine them.

Together, these elements—Abbey, Labyrinth, Dragon, Castle—embody the spectrum of integration we came to discuss. Like Brno itself, science advances when it allows diverse ideas, eras, and disciplines to meet, to question, and to evolve together.

At the Abbey, we brought together leaders from genomics and exposomics to begin that process of integration—to explore how two complementary perspectives might together illuminate the full landscape of health and disease. What follows is a walk through that meeting: the conversations that unfolded, the connections that began, and the collective sense that we stand at a threshold—where the next generation of discovery will depend, as it did in Mendel’s garden, on learning to see patterns across boundaries.

The Path to Brno

If Brno provided the setting, the idea that brought us there began months earlier. After participating in the Banbury Meeting, which focused on opportunities to integrate exposomics into biomedical research, Gary Miller and Jana Kánlová reflected on the logical next step. Both agreed that it was time to bring together researchers from genomics and exposomics—to begin not only a dialogue, but a process of scientific integration.

From that shared vision, the details came quickly: hosting the meeting at the Mendel Museum—the birthplace of genetics—engaging Chirag Patel and Robert Barouki as co-organizers, and curating a list of invitees who could bridge disciplines and bring complementary expertise. October in Brno promised crisp autumn air and bursts of color across the city. It also, unfortunately, coincided with a U.S. government shutdown that prevented several colleagues from attending.

Interdisciplinarity was the driving force from the start.

The meeting’s goals required assembling people at the forefront of genomics and exposomics, as well as those whose work spans translational and clinical research, big data and AI, population sciences, toxicology, and the social sciences. Junior career scientists from both the US and EU, covering all relevant fields, were invited to the event to share in the conference experience and expose them to the interdisciplinary discussions. Unlike many field-specific conferences, this gathering demanded a shared foundation of knowledge—a base on which to build over two intensive days of discussion and discovery.

Yet the meeting was never only about the science. Relationship-building was a central design principle.

On the eve of the conference, participants who arrived early were invited to dinner and then to join the Orchestra & Choir of the Age of Enlightenment for a performance of Handel’s Solomon—a fitting overture for what was to come.

With new connections forming and old ones renewed, the meeting opened by establishing common ground in genomics and exposomics. From there, participants moved through a series of research themes that brought the conversation progressively closer to people and the world they inhabit: exploring cohorts as bridges linking genomics and exposomics; examining the technical foundations of the genomics-exposomics interface (G&E); identifying practical approaches for integrating G&E across the biomedical continuum; envisioning the innovations required to advance integrating the fields; and finally, asking how society might benefit from combining genomic and exposomic knowledge.

The format alternated between short talks, panels, and small interdisciplinary group discussions that were held in some of the historic rooms of the Abbey. These smaller sessions created space to probe assumptions, clarify concepts, surface skepticism, and uncover new connections between ideas.

Rather than rushing through dense sessions or working lunches, the organizers intentionally designed time for reflection and conversation.

Thirty-minute breaks with generous refreshments, 90-minute lunches at a nearby brewery, and an opening day dinner in the newly built greenhouse honoring Mendel’s pea experiments all reinforced the spirit of openness that had brought everyone together.

As the meeting unfolded, the benefits of this intentional pacing became clear. Connections deepened, creative ideas took root, and new collaborations began to grow.

By the final afternoon, the group came together to synthesize key insights, distill action items, and outline a framework for the next steps in integrating exposomics into biomedical research. What emerged was not just shared understanding, but the beginnings of a community—one capable of carrying this integration forward.

What’s Next

Building on the discussions in Brno, we are developing a White Paper that captures the key outcomes and recommendations from the meeting.

Once a draft is ready, participants will be invited to provide feedback. This document will serve as the foundation for a broader publication outlining the path forward at the intersection of genomics and exposomics to advance human health.

The collaboration that began in Brno will continue—through writing, shared perspectives, and joint initiatives. Exposome science will evolve through exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary dialogue that made this meeting so productive. Future gatherings will extend this work by focusing on integrating exposomics into translational and clinical research, exploring links to health economics, and confronting the challenges and opportunities presented by environmental big data. Although there were fewer than 40 participants in Brno, we will invite members of the broader genomics and exposomics communities to contribute to the shared efforts outlined in Brno.

Like the city that hosted it, the Brno meeting revealed what becomes possible when strong foundations meet open corridors—when disciplines, like architectural eras, begin to speak the same language of integration.

List of originally confirmed attendees

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