‘OMICS-based’ Biomarkers for Environmental Health Studies

Abstract

The development of biomarkers based on high-throughput techniques, cutting-edge biostatistics and bioinformatics tools is revolutionizing molecular cancer epidemiology. Once validated, such biomarkers will open new and promising perspectives for human health risk assessment and identification of at-risk populations. The application of OMICS to environmental health research is currently resulting in the production of large data sets on gene expression, transcription factors, proteins, metabolites, adducts and epigenetic regulation of the genome in relation to dietary and environmental exposures. The assessment of whole genome transcriptomic and epigenetic profiles (where microRNA analysis has raised special attention in recent years) are regarded as potentially powerful approaches to reduce uncertainties in health risk assessments and to improve strategies for disease prevention, which is a shared aim of the new European Union (EU) research programme, Horizon 2020 (http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/). However, to guarantee appropriate application of OMICS, some challenges need to be addressed in the coming years regarding study design, technicalities in methodology and data analysis.