Search

Early life stages are vulnerable to environmental hazards and present important windows of opportunity for lifelong disease prevention. This makes early life a relevant starting point for exposome studies. The Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation (ATHLETE) project aims to develop a toolbox of exposome tools and a Europe-wide exposome cohort that will be used to systematically quantify the effects of a wide range of community- and individual-level environmental risk factors on mental, cardiometabolic, and respiratory health outcomes and associated biological pathways, longitudinally from early pregnancy through to adolescence. Exposome tool and data development include as follows: (1) a findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) data infrastructure for early life exposome cohort data, including 16 prospective birth cohorts in 11 European countries; (2) targeted and nontargeted approaches to measure a wide range of environmental exposures (urban, chemical, physical, behavioral, social); (3) advanced statistical and toxicological strategies to analyze complex multidimensional exposome data; (4) estimation of associations between the exposome and early organ development, health trajectories, and biological (metagenomic, metabolomic, epigenetic, aging, and stress) pathways; (5) intervention strategies to improve early life urban and chemical exposomes, co-produced with local communities; and (6) child health impacts and associated costs related to the exposome. Data, tools, and results will be assembled in an openly accessible toolbox, which will provide great opportunities for researchers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders, beyond the duration of the project. ATHLETE'S results will help to better understand and prevent health damage from environmental exposures and their mixtures from the earliest parts of the life course onward. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 874583—the Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation (ATHLETE) project. This publication reflects only the authors’ view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. Dr. Dadvand is funded by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC2012-10995) awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Finance. Drs. Casas and Guxens are funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (MS16/00128, CPII18/00018). Drs. Chatzi and Conti were supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R21ES029681, R01ES029944, R01ES030364, R01ES030691, and P30ES007048). Additional funding from National Institutes of Health supported Dr. Conti (P01CA196569, R01CA140561) and Dr. Stratakis (P30DK048522). Investigators Drs. McEachan and Wright receive funding from the National Institute for Health Research under its Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber. Dr. Jaddoe received funding from a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC-2014-CoG-648916). Dr. Duijts received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 co-funded programme European Research Area Net on Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health (European Research Area Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life) (Early life programming of childhood health project [number 696295; 2017], ZonMW, The Netherlands [number 529051014; 2017]). Dr. Guxens received funding from the Agence Nationale de Securite Sanitaire de l’Alimentation de l’Environnement et du Travail (EST-18 RF-25). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Early life stages are vulnerable to environmental hazards and present important windows of opportunity for lifelong disease prevention. This makes early life a relevant starting point for exposome studies. The Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation (ATHLETE) project aims to develop a toolbox of exposome tools and a Europe-wide exposome cohort that will be used to systematically quantify the effects of a wide range of community- and individual-level environmental risk factors on mental, cardiometabolic, and respiratory health outcomes and associated biological pathways, longitudinally from early pregnancy through to adolescence. Exposome tool and data development include as follows: (1) a findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) data infrastructure for early life exposome cohort data, including 16 prospective birth cohorts in 11 European countries; (2) targeted and nontargeted approaches to measure a wide range of environmental exposures (urban, chemical, physical, behavioral, social); (3) advanced statistical and toxicological strategies to analyze complex multidimensional exposome data; (4) estimation of associations between the exposome and early organ development, health trajectories, and biological (metagenomic, metabolomic, epigenetic, aging, and stress) pathways; (5) intervention strategies to improve early life urban and chemical exposomes, co-produced with local communities; and (6) child health impacts and associated costs related to the exposome. Data, tools, and results will be assembled in an openly accessible toolbox, which will provide great opportunities for researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders, beyond the duration of the project. ATHLETE's results will help to better understand and prevent health damage from environmental exposures and their mixtures from the earliest parts of the life course onward.

Early life stages are vulnerable to environmental hazards and present important windows of opportunity for lifelong disease prevention. This makes early life a relevant starting point for exposome studies. The Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation (ATHLETE) project aims to develop a toolbox of exposome tools and a Europe-wide exposome cohort that will be used to systematically quantify the effects of a wide range of community- and individual-level environmental risk factors on mental, cardiometabolic, and respiratory health outcomes and associated biological pathways, longitudinally from early pregnancy through to adolescence. Exposome tool and data development include as follows: (1) a findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable (FAIR) data infrastructure for early life exposome cohort data, including 16 prospective birth cohorts in 11 European countries; (2) targeted and nontargeted approaches to measure a wide range of environmental exposures (urban, chemical, physical, behavioral, social); (3) advanced statistical and toxicological strategies to analyze complex multidimensional exposome data; (4) estimation of associations between the exposome and early organ development, health trajectories, and biological (metagenomic, metabolomic, epigenetic, aging, and stress) pathways; (5) intervention strategies to improve early life urban and chemical exposomes, co-produced with local communities; and (6) child health impacts and associated costs related to the exposome. Data, tools, and results will be assembled in an openly accessible toolbox, which will provide great opportunities for researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders, beyond the duration of the project. ATHLETE's results will help to better understand and prevent health damage from environmental exposures and their mixtures from the earliest parts of the life course onward. ISGlobal acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2019–2023” Program (CEX2018-000806-S) and support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the Centres de Recerca de Catalunya Program. We acknowledge collaboration with European projects, specifically: Human Early Life Exposome (HELIX) (FP7 grant agreement number 308333), LifeCycle (H2020 grant agreement number 733206), and Connecting Europe and Canada in personalized health (EUCAN-Connect) (H2020 Grant Agreement number 824989). The Born in Bradford (BiB) cohort is only possible because of the enthusiasm and commitment of the Children and Parents in BiB. We are grateful to all the participants, health professionals, and researchers who have made BiB happen. The BiB cohort is only possible because of the enthusiasm and commitment of the children and parents in BiB. We are grateful to all the participants, health professionals, schools, and researchers who have made BiB happen. BiB has received funding from the Wellcome Trust (101597), a joint grant from the UK Medical Research Council and UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (MR/N024391/1), a British Heart Foundation Clinical Study grant (CS/16/4/32482). The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Education and Research. We are grateful to all the participating families in Norway who take part in this ongoing cohort study. The Danish National Birth Cohort was established with a significant grant from the Danish National Research Foundation. Additional support was obtained from the Danish Regional Committees, the Pharmacy Foundation, the Egmont Foundation, the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, the Health Foundation, and other minor grants. The Danish National Birth Cohort Biobank has been supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Lundbeck Foundation. Follow-up of mothers and children have been supported by the Danish Medical Research Council (SSVF 0646, 271-08-0839/06-066023, O602-01042B, 0602-02738B); the Lundbeck Foundation (195/04, R100-A9193); The Innovation Fund Denmark 0603-00294B (09-067124); the Nordea Foundation (02-2013-2014); Aarhus Ideas (AU R9-A959-13-S804); University of Copenhagen Strategic Grant (IFSV 2012); and the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF—4183-00594 and DFF—4183-00152). The general design of the Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, and Ministry of Youth and Families. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (LIFECYCLE, grant agreement number 733206, 2016; EUCAN-Connect grant agreement number 824989; ATHLETE, grant agreement number 874583). We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of participants, research collaborators, general practitioners, hospitals, midwives, and pharmacies in Rotterdam. The INfancia y Medio Ambiente cohort (INMA) Sababell study was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176; CB06/02/0041; PI041436; PI081151 incl. Fondo Europeo de Desarollo Regional (FEDER) funds; PI12/01890 incl. FEDER funds; CP13/00054 incl. FEDER funds; PI15/00118 incl. FEDER funds; CP16/00128 incl. FEDER funds; PI16/00118 incl. FEDER funds; PI16/00261 incl. FEDER funds; PI17/01340 incl. FEDER funds, PI18/00547 incl. FEDER funds, PI20/01695 incl. FEDER funds), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red - Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Generalitat de Catalunya-Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològia 1999SGR 00241, Generalitat de Catalunya-Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación (2009 SGR 501, 2014 SGR 822), Fundació La Marató de TV3 (090430), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SAF2012-32991 incl. FEDER funds), Agence Nationale de Securite Sanitaire de l’Alimentation de l’Environnement et du Travail (1262C0010; EST-2016 RF-21, EST-19 RF-04), and the European Commission (261357, 308333, 603794 and 634453). The INMA Valencia study was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-FEDER: 13/2032, 13/1944, 14/00891, 16/1288, 17/00663, and 19/1338; Miguel Servet-FSE: CP15/0025 and MSII16/00051, 00051, and MSII20/0006), Alicia Koplowitz Foundation 2017, Generalitat Valenciana (AICO/2020/285), and Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) “Seed Ideas” 2019 (IDEAS19098LOPE). INMA Gipuzkoa was funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI09/00090, FIS-PI13/02187, and FIS-PI18/01142 incl. FEDER funds), CIBERESP, Department of Health of the Basque Government (2005111093, 2009111069, 2013111089, and 2015111065), and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG06/002, DFG08/001, and DFG15/221) and annual agreements with the municipalities of the study area (Zumarraga, Urretxu, Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain). The Sepages cohort would like to thank the Grenoble University Hospital (CHU-GA) biobank (bb-0033-00069). We thank the Sepages Study group (E. Eyriey, P. Hoffmann, E. Hullo, J. Lepeule, C. Llerena, S. Lyon-Caen, X. Morin, A. Morlot, C. Philippat, I. Pin, J. Quentin, V. Siroux, R. Slama) and the participants of the Suivi de l’Exposition à la Pollution Atmosphérique durant la Grossesse et Effets sur la Santé (SEPAGES) study. We acknowledge support from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Région, Soutien aux coopérations universitaires et scientifiques internationales fund to support collaborations between Catalunya and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. SEPAGES cohort was supported by the European Research Council (consolidator grant N 311765-E-DOHaD, Principal Investigator [PI], R. Slama), by French National Research Agency (ANR), the ANR (Pregnancy, Air Pollution, Epigenetics and Respiratory health project ANR-12-PDOC-0029-01, PI, J. Lepeule; A Longitudinal Analysis of Effects of Early Life Exposure to Phenols on Health in Humans project, 14-CE21-0007-01, PI, R. Slama; Gut Microbiota in early childhood and Maternal Environmental exposures project, PI, R. Slama; Prenatal Exposure to Tobacco smoking and Air Pollution and Effects on offspring respiratory and neurodevelopmental outcomes ANR 18-CE36-005, PI, J. Lepeule). The Central European Longitudinal Study of Pregnacy and Childhood: The Next Generation (TNG) cohort is supported by the RECETOX research infrastructure (the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic: LM2018121) and the CETOCOEN EXCELLENCE Teaming 2 project of European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 (857560) and the MEYS of the Czech Republic (02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_ 046/0015975). The Barcelona Life Study Cohort has received funding from European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number (785994) (Prenatal exposure to urban air pollution and pre and post-natal brain development project) and from the Health Effects Institute (HEI) under Agreement number 4959-RFPA15-1/18-1 (FRONTIER project). Genotyping in the HELIX study was supported by project PI17/01225 (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, co-funded by European Union [European Regional Development Fund], “A way to make Europe”) and the Centro Nacional de Genotipado-CEGEN (PRB2-ISCIII). The Nascita e Infanzia: gli Effetti dell’Ambiente cohort was partially funded by the Compagnia SanPaolo Foundation and the Piedmont Region. The Piccolipiù project was funded by the Italian National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (National Centre for Disease Prevention and Control grants years 2010 and 2014) and by the Italian Ministry of Health (art 12 and 12 bis D.lgs 502/92). The Perturbateurs Endocriniens: Étude Longitudinale sur les Anomalies de la Grossesse, l’Infertilité et l’Enfance study is supported by National Institute of Health and Medical Research and has received multiple funds from the ANR, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), the Fondation de France, the National Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), the French, Ministry of Labor, the French Ministry of Health, and the French Ministry of Ecology. DataSHIELD is funded under a group of projects that underpin a program of development and application of secure methods for co-analysis, data sharing, and visualization in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University (United Kingdom). These include: the “Connected Health Cities project” (North East and North Cumbria) funded by the UK Department of Health (RES/0150/7943/202); the “EUCanConnect project” (European Commission H2020 Flagship Collaboration with Canada); the “58FORWARDS project” (Fostering new Opportunities for Researchers via Wider Access to Research Data and Samples) funded jointly by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council (108439/Z/15/Z); and the “METADAC project” (Managing Ethico-social, Technical and Administrative issues in Data ACcess) funded jointly by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the Economic and Social Research Council (MR/N01104X/1 and MR/N01104X/2). We acknowledge the Molecular Genetics Information System team, including Fleur Kelpin, Tommy de Boer, Mariska Slofstra, Connor Stroomberg, Jelmer Veen, Jeroen van Veen, Fernanda de Andrade, Marije van der Geest, Dieuwke Roelofs-Prins, Dennis Hendriksen, Bart Charbon, Joeri van der Velde, Max Postema, Erik Schaberg, Christiaan Hilbrands, Alexander Kellmann, and Luuk Dijkhuis.