Precision Environmental Health

精准环保健康

• 批准号: NE/Y005120/1
• 负责人: Xiaojing Li
• 金额: $ 29.71万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FY005120%2F1
• 关键词: Precision; Environmental; Health

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.

相当数量的化学品来自工业过程、农业径流和生活垃圾。这些化学物质通过各种途径在环境中以复杂混合物的形式积累。目前的监管框架主要针对个别化学品，往往忽视了这些混合物的潜在影响。然而，有证据表明，这种混合物会对人类和野生动物造成严重的不利影响，即使存在于低于监管阈值的水平。迫切需要一种全面的方法来评估这些环境化学品混合物(ECM)带来的健康危害，以有效地应对这一挑战。我提出了一个称为精密环境健康(PEH)的框架，作为对ECM危害评估挑战的解决方案。PEH方法是一个三级方法，它使用一组对化学物质敏感的无脊椎动物(水蚤)来测试ECM的效果。第一层涉及生物分子图谱和化学指纹分析，以提供环境ECM暴露的概述。其次，通过对达夫类生物分子图谱的比较分析，确定对健康危害较高的ECM。在第三层，人工智能算法可以精确定位导致不利健康影响的化学成分，建议优先考虑危险化学品的监管和缓解。由于响应ECM的代谢机制可能在进化和功能保护方面与野生动物和人类相同，因此水蚤的生物分子信号可能暗示着健康危害，甚至人类也是如此。因此，PEH在解决保护人类和野生动物免受ECM影响方面的挑战方面很有希望。作为一个概念框架，PEH必须在现实世界的场景中进行测试，以证明其实用性和可靠性。然而，满足监管要求并获得利益相关者的意见和反馈至关重要。成为伯明翰大学环境研究与司法中心的研究员将为我提供一个独特的机会--与生物科学和法学院的多学科研究人员合作，通过精密毒理学(PT)项目会见利益相关者咨询小组并从他们那里获得宝贵的专家建议，以及参与由13个国家和地区的50个组织组成的以伯明翰大学为基础的环境关怀联盟，其中包括中国。通过与利益相关者的知识交流，为我改进和推广PEH搭建了舞台！因此，我申请这一奖学金，以建立、验证和促进PEH--下一代化学危险评估的框架。我将通过将PEH应用于三个案例研究来建立该框架，以评估和论证该框架的有效性和稳健性。然后，我将利用来自不同背景的网络(包括学术界和监管机构)的专家意见来改进框架，以验证和证实其在监管ECM问题方面的作用。最后，我将与环境法专家合作，寻找机会改革英国的环境化学污染监管做法，从而启动科学对政策的倡导。通过实现这些目标，我将离我的最终目标更近一步，即加强化学危险评估和保护人类和环境健康。