HEALS

Health and Environment-wide Associations based on Large population Surveys
- | FP7-ENV-2013

HEALS project was based on a comprehensive applied methodology focusing on the different aspects of individual assessment of exposure to conventional and emerging environmental stressors and on the prediction of the associated health outcomes. Key health endpoints considered includeallergic respiratory diseases, bronchial asthma, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease, obesity, and childhood type II diabetes (T2D). For the first time, HEALS tried to reverse the paradigm of “nature versus nurture” and adopt one defined by complex and dynamic interactions between DNA sequence, epigenetic DNA modifications, gene expression and environmental factors that all combine to influence disease phenotypes. HEALS started from analysis of data collected in previous epidemiological EU studies involving mother/infant pairs, children, or adults including the elderly to evidence relevant environmental exposure/health outcome associations. These associations allowed designing pilot surveys using an integrated approach, where the selection of biomarkers of exposure, effects and individual susceptibility results in integrated risk assessment.

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