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The bio-exposome: intracellular processes, stress physiology and the environment

Nature Mental Health volume 2, pages 132–140 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Most studies on the relationship between childhood adversity and negative outcomes across the lifespan have focused on individual exposures or outcomes—an approach that has been limited in its ability to elucidate mechanisms or causality. We propose a new framework for examining the relationship between childhood adversity and negative outcomes—the bio-exposome. In this model, we aim to understand the interconnections between every aspect of biology and the exposome, and the way disparate biological and exposome factors shape, and are shaped by, one another. Once we understand when, in which contexts and towards whom stress calibration interventions should be targeted, through examination of the bio-exposome, we could facilitate prevention of some of the major causes of morbidity across the lifespan. To examine the bio-exposome, we offer a new research agenda that embraces complexity science, large datasets and collaboration across a wide range of scientific disciplines.

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Fig. 1: The Bronfenbrenner bio-ecological model.
Fig. 2: The bio-exposome.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Wellbeing, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Helen Minnis, Ruchika Gajwani, Jala Rizeq, Christopher Gillberg, Frederick K. Ho & Jill Pell

  2. Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Helen Minnis & Christopher Gillberg

  3. Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Anne-Laura van Harmelen

  4. Centre for the Integration of Resilience Complexity Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Anne-Laura van Harmelen

  5. Human Nutrition, School of Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Emilie Combet

  6. Centre for Cardiovascular Science, Queen’s Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Rebecca M. Reynolds

  7. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Marion Henderson

  8. School of Social Work and Social Policy, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Marion Henderson

  9. Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK

    Valeria Mondelli

  10. National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London, London, UK

    Valeria Mondelli

  11. Caribbean Institute for Health Research, The University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica

    Joanne Smith

  12. School of Molecular Biosciences, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Paul G. Shiels

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All authors have been part of an active and longstanding group discussing and debating the model discussed in the paper, contributed towards the drafting of the paper and agreed the final draft. H.M. wrote the initial draft and P.G.S., as senior author, worked closely with H.M. to build the initial model.

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Correspondence to Helen Minnis.

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A.L.v.H. acknowledges consulting fees from the Augeo foundation. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Minnis, H., van Harmelen, AL., Gajwani, R. et al. The bio-exposome: intracellular processes, stress physiology and the environment. Nat. Mental Health 2, 132–140 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00180-3

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