The 2026 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held in Phoenix provided an opportunity to introduce emerging scientific disciplines bringing together multidisciplinary expertise to fill gaps between traditional research domains. EIRENE was invited to contribute to two such sessions, on Planetary Health and on Human Exposome.
Bryan Brooks from Baylor University who organized and moderated the Planetary Health session, invited three researchers from different fields to share their views on the topic. Miriam Diamond from Toronto University introduced the overall concept and current challenges. Jana Klanova from Masaryk University demonstrated how planetary health challenge relates and overlaps with other similar concepts such as circular economy, sustainability, exposome or one health, and how the research capacities and tools developed in EIRENE provide a joint platform enabling advancements in these fields. While she focused more on the environmental and health factors, Paul Anastas from Yale University showed how green chemistry complements this picture by providing more sustainable solutions for societies.
The Exposome session was organized by Thomas Hartung from John Hopkins University. In the discussion moderated by Clive Cookson, senior science writer from the Financial Times, he teamed up with Gary Miller from Harward University and Jana Klanova from MU to present global advancements in exposome science. Gary Miller described the exposome scientific concept and current state-of-the-art and introduced the Network for EXposomics in the US (NEXUS) project. Jana Klanova continued by presenting advancements in Europe including European and International Human Exposome Networks (EHEN, IHEN) and global ambitions of the EIRENE research infrastructure. She introduced the European concept of research infrastructures bringing together European and national funding, and two Horizon Europe grants recently awarded to EIRENE to set up a legal entity and enhance its scope of services. Thomas Hartung concluded by highlighting the role of artificial intelligence in exploiting available data. The following discussion was reflected in The Economist magazine featuring an article on how the Human Exposome Project will map how environmental factors shape health. The article stated that politically, Europe is leading the way in human exposome research.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit established in 1848 with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. It is the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the scientific journal Science.
The Economist article: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/02/18/the-human-exposome-project-will-map-how-environmental-factors-shape-health?utm_campaign=shared_article
Reducing the incidence of chronic diseases is the goal of a newly established European Exposome Alliance of the European Parliament. The Alliance aims to place prevention at the heart of the European health and research agenda and focus attention on preventable factors that affect human health throughout life.
SIRENE is a Horizon Europe INFRA‑SERV project that integrates leading European infrastructures to provide harmonised, open access to exposome and environmental health services, enabling researchers to better understand how environmental exposures impact human health.
