Benedikt Warth
National Node Contact Point
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|
EIRENE AUSTRIA
Exposome Austria was officially established at the University of Vienna (UNIVIE) in January 2022 and involves three other partner institutions: Medical University of Vienna (MUW), Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI), and the Environment Agency Austria (EAA). The formation of Exposome Austria goes back to the Autumn of 2019 and is based on the Austrian Human-Biomonitoring Platform, which had been operating successfully since 2007 and, in 2016, became an advisory body to the minister of the environment and regularly reports to the National Council of the Austrian parliament (demonstrating the high importance of innovative biomonitoring and exposome initiatives in the Austrian scientific landscape).
In the near future, two 'Open Lab' infrastructures at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Innsbruck will be established in close cooperation with the existing mass spectrometry core facilities. In addition, the analytical facilities at the Environment Agency Austria, while not intended to be fully open, are part of the Austrian EIRENE strategy. These centers of excellence for measuring the chemical exposure of population groups examine urine, blood, umbilical cord blood, breast milk, or placental tissue, as well as other environmental samples, applying innovative targeted and non-targeted analytical methods. In addition to the exposure, the biological effects triggered by chemical exposures might be investigated holistically and systematically.
Research Focus
In accordance with the Austrian proposal submitted in March 2020 to the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF), which received political support, EA focuses on the establishment of innovative mass spectrometry-based analytical services. This is especially true during the preparatory phase of EIRENE (2022-2026).
These services should, in the long term, support the following three research areas of high national priority:
1. Analytical method development
Three of the involved institutions (UNIVIE, EAA, MUI) have high-end analytical instrumentation and unique expertise in exposure-related research. This includes targeted HBM of chemicals relevant for environment and food safety such as perfluorinated substances (‘PFOS/PFOA’), bisphenols (‘BPA’), phthalates, pesticides, mycotoxins, phytochemicals, heavy metals, and pharmaceutical compounds. A major priority of the Austrian partners will be the highly innovative area of non-targeted screening (NTS), an approach in which high-resolution mass spectrometry allows for the detection of contaminants, toxins and other xenobiotics without any a priori knowledge. NTS techniques and workflows are available in the laboratories of UNIVIE, EAA, and MUI. An important aspect will be the development of tandem mass spectral libraries and their linkage with tailored bioinformatic tools for the (semi-)automated evaluation of the generated big data.
2. Early-life chemical exposome and its impact on health and disease
It has been suggested that chemical exposure during early life (in utero and until adolescence) heavily impacts later life health outcomes. This is specifically relevant in the case of neurobehavioral and developmental disorders, whose prevalence is increasing. Also, some of the most relevant diseases challenging our aging society, including many cancers and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, are often attributed to environmental exposure during early life, though still elusive. Based on this great need and the solid foundation established via successful projects in the past, EA will focus on early-life exposure assessment. The research enabled by the RI will, therefore, mostly involve (i) placental research for investigating in-utero exposure and metabolism, (ii) exposure in mother-infant pairs, and (iii) the comprehensive assessment of chemical exposure in Austrian infants and children. As early life exposure is of utmost importance for the development of a broad spectrum of diseases, potent efforts will be undertaken to identify and minimize the contaminants as well as the burden of disease.
3. Austrian biobank for assessing exposures during early life and precision prevention
Samples obtained within the ongoing projects (funded by third parties or the respective research institutions) are intended to be the basis for the first Austrian biobank focusing on early life exposure. The biobank will be established in close cooperation with the BBMRI-AT and will heavily benefit from their expertise and the developed management, storage, and QC systems. Within the European EIRENE consortium, it is intended to cooperate closely with the partners in the Czech Republic (RECETOX, Masaryk University). Thus, maximum coherence in sampling, storage and data management will be assured and allow for first-of-its-kind prospective and longitudinal studies. The information on human exposure obtained from specific biological samples will be complemented with environmental samples, which include air, drinking water, environmental contaminants in food, and population-wide data obtained from wastewater-based epidemiology. This research discipline involves the collection of wastewater samples at the influent of a wastewater treatment plant and their analysis for substances related to aspects of public health.
These areas may be expanded upon the needs of the involved research institutions and other stakeholders during the later phases of the RI.
National Node Members
UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA (national coordinator)
Global Exposomics & Biomonitoring
Benedikt Warth is a professor at the University of Vienna, where he founded the „Global Exposomics and Biomonitoring Working Group“ in 2017. Before returning to Austria, he was an Erwin-Schrödinger fellow at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, where he developed and applied novel metabolomics technology to research questions in the field of cancer research and systems toxicology. His research focus is in the area of omics-scale exposure assessment and analytical food chemistry to better understand the in vivo and in vitro effects of environmental and food contaminants.
Benedikt Warth
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://exposomics.univie.ac.at/ |
Metabolomics, Lipidomics, & Metallomics
Gunda Koellensperger is an analytical chemist focusing on method development in mass spectrometry. Her expertise covers elemental/metal trace analysis, metabolomics and lipidomics and her research focuses on the development of quantification strategies and new streamlined high throughput workflows enabling both absolute quantification, i.e. targeted -omics as well as non-targeted -omics. More recently she got involved in single cell analysis by elemental imaging.
Gunda Koellensperger
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://koellenspergerlab.univie.ac.at/ |
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA
Epidemiology
Eva Schernhammer is a professor of Epidemiology at the Medical University of Vienna and head of the Department of Epidemiology. Besides, she holds an Adjunct Professorship of Medicine (Harvard Medical School) and Epidemiology (Harvard School of Public Health). Her major scientific contributions have highlighted the effects of light at night on cancer risk through the melatonin pathway. This work has led to the establishment of a new classification of shift work as a probable human carcinogen by WHO in 2007.
Eva Schernhammer
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|
Neonatal & Pediatric Systems Immunology
Lukas Wisgrill is a resident at the Division of Neonatology and the Pediatric Intensive Care and Neuropediatrics Unit. His current research interests include the neonatal exposome and microbiome and the influence on inflammation and development of extreme premature infants. Further research includes the ontogeny of the neonatal immune system as well as the trained immunity during the transitional phase from the fetal to the postnatal immune system. Currently, he uses system biology approaches to decipher the role of host-microbiome interactions and is establishing a biobank with specimens from premature infants.
Lukas Wisgrill
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://www.wisgrill-lab.com/ |
Medical Ecology & Environmental Health
The group focuses on medical ecology and environmental health. After five human biomonitoring studies in which perinatal exposure to environmental pollutants was investigated, the focus is now on the metabolism and transport of metals (mercury, iron, lead, cadmium) and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the human placenta. In the search for proteins involved in placental kinetics, the group combines human biomonitoring (HBM) and genetics with basic research on placental (patho)physiology. The aim is to identify genetic variants that are causally related to placental dysfunction and associated pregnancy diseases. A main goal of another research project on placental iron metabolism is the development of an improved therapy for premature babies with low iron levels.
Claudia Gundacker
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://www.gundacker-lab.at/ |
MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK
Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry
Assoz.Prof. Dr. Herbert Oberacher is an analytical chemist. In 2002 he received his PhD at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. After spending a year as postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Saarland, Germany, he got a position as senior researcher at the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Innsbruck Medical University, Austria. In 2007 he received the “venia docendi” for bioanalysis, and in 2011 he was appointed as Associate Professor. His research focuses on the development of new and advanced techniques for the analysis of bioorganic molecules with special emphasis on nucleic acids and “small molecules”. For this research, he received several national and international awards. He has (co-)authored more than 120 papers in international scientific journals and holds three patents.
Herbert Oberbacher
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://biomassspec.gmi.tirol/ |
ENVIRONMENT AGENCY AUSTRIA
Human Biomonitoring
The aim of human biomonitoring is to determine which substances enter the body and to what extent. The concentrations of substances or their metabolic products (metabolites) are determined using chemical methods. The exposure is recorded independently of the numerous intake routes (e.g. via food, skin contact, environment). The Federal Environment Agency has been running its own human biomonitoring laboratory since 2007 and examines blood samples (plasma, whole blood), urine, fatty tissue, breast milk, and hair samples for environmental pollutants in the ultra-trace range.
Maria Uhl
| e‑mail: |
|
|---|---|
| web: | https://www.umweltbundesamt.at/das-labor/analytik/das-labor/hbm-labor |
Scientific & Strategic Advisory Board
Exposome Austria established a Scientific & Strategic Advisory Board in May 2022 that meets annually and oversees the national RIs development and activities. It involves global research, industry, and opinion leaders who support EIRENE and particularly the Austrian National Node. Apart from the annual board meetings, all members agreed on being consulted on an ‘as needed basis’, especially in the framework of strategic long-term decisions, global harmonization efforts, and political/stakeholder engagement.
