The Institute for Research in Health, Environment and Work (Irset) in Rennes has been studying for several years external factors affecting our health. Nathalie Bonvallot, toxicologist and deputy director of Irset and Arthur David, pilot of the exposome platform, explain what the research consists of.
What is the exposome?
The exposome is the set of environmental factors to which humans are exposed throughout their lives. These factors can be chemical, socio-economic, etc. This notion of exposome arrived with the sequencing of the genome (all chromosomes and genes). We realized that DNA alone was not enough to explain chronic diseases. If the genome is stable, the exposome is dynamic and varies over the course of our life.
What can affect the human body?
There are several internal and external factors. It can be external elements such as atmospheric pollution, chemicals present in our personal or professional environment, food or the place of residence for people living in precarious places. There is also everything that is specific to each person such as age, morphology, level of education. At this point, it is still impossible to measure all exposures.
How did you bring together so many different disciplines?
This concept made it possible to bring together scientists from very different disciplines and who began to work together: biologists, epidemiologists, toxicologists, chemists, etc., despite sometimes very different technical languages. The strength of Irset is that all these people are present in the same place. It is an almost unique playground on a French and global scale. We can talk about our projects and set up seminars to create a dynamic.
How do you go about your research?
To conduct our research, we are interested in the exposome in terms of diversity, but also in terms of temporality. An exhibit at one point can be seen decades later. Since it is not possible to continuously follow a person, we have chosen key periods such as the prenatal moment, puberty, etc. We rely for this on the study ” Pelagie ” in Brittany. Since 2002, it has followed 3,421 women and their children. Thanks to questionnaires, it is possible to obtain important information on the child’s environment and to be complementary with our research.
Where are they at?
In particular, we have worked on endocrine disruptors with the bisphenol A or atrazine. Normally, very toxic molecules are already very supervised and very regulated. Our goal now is to go towards mixtures and see which are the “cocktails” of molecules that are the most dangerous for humans. For that, you have to be able to identify them and prioritize them. After finding a potentially carcinogenic mixture, you have to know what the concentration of each molecule is. We have several funding for a total amount of 566,000 euros over the next 3-4 years from the Foundation for Medical Research (FRM), the national program Ecophyto2 +, or a project funded by Inserm in partnership with the Columbia University in New York.
Why is this research important at this time?
Because the number of patients with chronic diseases increases. The exposome is very rich and we are only at the beginning of research. The interest is to be able to take a sample of hair, a biological fluid, etc., and to discover what is the path of the person, to what he has been exposed throughout his life …
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