Publicador de continguts

Recerca i Innovació Programes
Recerca, Planificació urbana, medi ambient i salut

HELIX

Novel tools for integrating early-life environmental exposures and child health across Europe

Durada
2013-2017
Coordinador
Martine Vrijheid (ISGobal)
Finançadors
Comissió Europea. Seventh Framework Programme
Pàgina web
http://www.projecthelix.eu

Due to our ever changing environment and habits, exposure to environmental contaminants is growing increasingly complex. The totality of environmental (non-genetic) exposures from conception until old age is defined as the ‘exposome’. The HELIX ‘early-life exposome’ approach involves combining all environmental hazards that mothers and children are exposed to, and linking this to the health, growth and development of children.

Pregnancy and the early years of life are well recognized to be periods of high susceptibility to environmental damage with lifetime consequences. Characterisation of the exposome in early life can provide very effective tools for disease prevention, given that interventions at that time can reshape biological programming and shift the body’s developmental track to the normal function. This makes early life an important starting point for development of the exposome.

The results of the project will help us to better understand how various types of exposures combine to influence our risk of disease.

The project will develop a comprehensive set of high-tech tools, methods and prospective data to measure and integrate the chemical, physical and molecular environment and link this to health of children. Smart phones are used to measure air pollution, UV radiation, physical activity and noise exposure. The latest laboratory techniques is used to measure biological indicators of many chemical exposures including contaminants in food, consumer products and water. In all, HELIX will collect full exposome data from 1,200 mothers and their children, the largest study to do this.

To achieve this, HELIX uses six existing, prospective birth cohort studies in Europe (BiB, EDEN, INMA, KANC, MoBa, Rhea). These cohorts have already collected large amounts of data as part of national and EU-funded projects. Results will be integrated with Europe-wide data to estimate health impacts at the larger European scale.

HELIX is funded by the EU and will receive €8.6 million over the course of five years. The project comprises of thirteen European partners, including two SMEs.

 

Related blog posts

Endocrine Disruptors—What Do They Disrupt?
The Exposome: Understanding the Effect of the Environment on Our Health

 

Our Team

Investigador principal (IP)

  • Martine Vrijheid
    Martine Vrijheid Research Professor i directora del Programa de Medi ambient i salut al llarg de la vida

Equip ISGlobal

Veure més

Altres projectes

Veure projectes passats

ATHLETE

Advancing Tools for Human Early Lifecourse Exposome Research and Translation

MCC-Spain

Estudi multi-cas control poblacional, incloent tumors d'alta incidència a Espanya

EGG/EAGLE

Early Genetics Growth/Early Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology

PACE

Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics

LIFECYCLE

Early-life stressors and LifeCycle health

OMEGA-NET

Network on the Coordination and Harmonisation of European Occupational Cohorts

HARMONIC

Health effects of cArdiac fluoRoscopy and mOdern radIotherapy in paediatriCs

Mobilise-D

Connecting digital mobility assessment to clinical outcomes for regulatory and clinical endorsement

EARLY-ADAPT

Signs of Early Adaptation to Climate Change

COVICAT

Cohorte Covid-19 en Cataluña

CONTENT

Cohort de COVID-19 a Espanya: dinàmica social, salut mental i desigualtats

EUCAN-Connect

A federated FAIR platform enabling large-scale analysis of high-value cohort data connecting Europe and Canada in personalized health

OBERON

An integrative strategy of testing systems for identification of EDs related to metabolic disorders

EXPANSE

EXposome Powered tools for healthy living in urbAN SEttings

AURORA 2021

Actionable eUropean ROadmap for early-life health Risk Assessment of micro- and nanoplastics

ONES

Fine Particle Matter, Fetal Growth, and Neurodevelopment: Examining Critical Windows of Susceptibility

AIR-NB

Pre-natal exposure to urban AIR pollution and pre- and post-Natal Brain development

NutinBrain

The role of seafood and nut consumption on human neurodevelopment from pregnancy to adolescence

UrbanKids

Urban and social environment and childhood obesity – a natural moving2health experiment

iGenCO

In-Depth Genomics and Cross-Omics Analysis for Undiagnosed Rare Diseases on a User-Friendly Collaborative Platform

CityExposomeCat

An Exposome Approach to Urban Health: Individualized Environmental Exposure Assessment in an Adults Population Cohort Study (GCAT)

TwinAir

Digital Twins Enabled Indoor Air Quality Management for Healthy Living

UBDPOLICY

The Urban Burden of Disease Estimation for POLICY Making

TOLIFE

Combining Artificial Intelligence and smart sensing TOward better management and improved quality of LIFE in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

BWater

Drinking Water in Barcelona: Sustainability and Health Impact Assessment

intoDBP

Innovative Tools to Control Organic Matter and Disinfection Byproducts in Drinking Water

FINDOOR

FTIR spectroscopy for real-time detection of bacterial outbreaks and the rapid identification of pathogenic serotypes, relapsing infections and antibiotic resistance

OccRF-Health

Occupational exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields: From exposure assessment to study of health in workers and their offspring

EPHOR

Exposome Project for Health and Occupational Research

EXPONIT

Analysing and studying how night shift work affects workers' circadian rhythms and health

IHEN

International Human Exposome Network

B-Triage

Una prueba en el punto de atención para la estratificación del riesgo de los pacientes febriles basada en los niveles de sTREM-1

e-QuoL

e-health tools to promote Equality in Quality of Life for childhood to young adulthood cancer patients, survivors and their families