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The environment in which we live has a major influence on our health. At the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, we focus on the relation between our environment and our health.

Most people think of research into air pollution first. But the exposome, all external factors that influence our health during our life – and this already starts in the womb of our mother - is more than just that. Research at our department is broad. Some of my colleagues focus on electromagnetic fields, such as cell towers and mobile phones, others work on micro-organisms that may have a protective effect on our health. My research focuses on environmental epidemiology at the animal-human interface. In particular infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance and air pollution from livestock farms. For instance, one of my research projects focused on people who live close to livestock farms, and the relation between ammonia exposure and respiratory health.

Complex puzzle

Exposome research is complicated. Some links have already been made, like smoking and cardiovascular diseases. Other links are not known yet. Thanks to technological developments we are able to measure more and more exposures, even in the smallest samples. The challenge we then face is two-folded. We have to process a huge amount of data on the one hand and on the other hand we have to deal with a lot of exposures which could relate to many different health issues. At a given moment, we have to determine whether data we obtained is actually relevant. When we make comparisons, we must keep in mind that there may still be a lot of noise on the line. It’s a complex puzzle, but in the end we bring all data back to one meaningful concept.

Even people within our own faculty are sometimes surprised that so much knowledge and equipment is available, just around the corner

Efficiency

Life Sciences research becomes more and more specialised. This means you can no longer do everything yourself, you have to look for partners you can collaborate with. Interdisciplinary research, one of the pillars of the Utrecht Exposome Hub, is thus not new to us. However, I expect that the hub will help us to work even more efficiently. It will become easier to find each other, to share our knowledge, equipment and expertise. Even people within our own faculty are sometimes surprised that so much knowledge and equipment is available, just around the corner. The hub will make people and facilities more visible, so everyone can benefit from it. 

Education

Where we can also make a difference, even more than on the research side, is building up and maintaining the human capital that is needed, for example in the field of bioinformatics. More and more we have to deal with a huge amount of multidimensional data. Bioinformatics has become indispensable. The hub can play a role in attracting young (future) scientists and in training our own generation by organising for example seminars .

We are already well on our way, and the combination of more visibility, efficiency and education will help us to make the next important step forward.
 

Lidwien Smit, PhD
Assistant Professor - Environmental Epidemiology
Faculty of Veterinary Science
Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ