Precision Environmental Health

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A significant quantity of chemicals originates from industrial processes, agricultural runoff, and domestic waste. These chemicals, via various routes, accumulate in the environment as complex mixtures. Current regulatory frameworks primarily target individual chemicals, often overlooking the potential effects of these mixtures. Yet, evidence has shown that such mixtures can induce severe adverse effects on humans and wildlife, even when present at levels below regulatory thresholds. There is an urgent need for a comprehensive approach to assessing the health hazards posed by these environmental chemical mixtures (ECMs) to effectively address this challenge.I propose a framework, called Precision Environmental Health (PEH), as a solution to the challenge of hazard assessment of ECMs. The PEH approach is a three-tiered approach that uses a group of chemical-sensitive invertebrates (Daphnia) to test the effects of ECM. The first tier involves biomolecular profiling and chemical fingerprinting to offer an overview of environmental ECM exposure. Secondly, ECM of higher health hazards will be identified with the comparative analysis of biomolecular profiles of daphnids. In the third tier, artificial intelligence algorithms can pinpoint the chemical components contributing to adverse health effects, suggesting prioritising hazardous chemicals for regulation and mitigation. As the metabolic mechanism responding to ECMs may be shared by wildlife and human regarding evolutionary and functional conservation, biomolecular signals of Daphnia can suggest health hazards, even shared by humans. Hence PEH is promising in addressing the challenges of protecting humans and wildlife from the impact of ECMs.Being a conceptual framework, PEH must be tested in real-world scenarios to demonstrate its practicality and reliability. However, meeting regulatory requirements and obtaining stakeholder input and feedback is crucial. Being a research fellow based at the Centre for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ) of the University of Birmingham (UoB) will offer me a unique opportunity - working with multi-disciplinary researchers from biosciences and law school, meeting and receiving valuable expert advice from Stakeholder Advisory Group through Precision Toxicology (PT) project, and engaging in the UoB-based Environment Care Consortium of 50 organizations across 13 countries, including China. The stage is set for me to improve and promote the PEH through knowledge exchange with stakeholders!Thus, I am applying for this fellowship for establishing, validating, and promoting PEH - a framework for next-generation chemical hazard assessment. I will establish the framework by applying PEH to three case studies, to evaluate and demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of this framework. Then, I will improve the framework with expert input from a network of diverse backgrounds, including academia and regulators, to verify and substantiate its role in regulating ECM problems. Lastly, I will work with experts in environmental law to identify opportunities for reforming the regulatory practices of environmental chemical pollution in the UK, allowing initiating science-to-policy advocacy. By achieving these objectives, I will be one step closer to my ultimate goal of enhancing chemical hazard assessment and safeguarding human and environmental health.