April 2, 2025

Prof Thomas Hartung – Exposome Moonshot Project

The Human Exposome Moonshot Project is a bold initiative to map how environmental exposures shape human health from conception to old age. Much like the Human Genome Project transformed genetics, the Human Exposome Project seeks to revolutionize our understanding of disease origins, public health, and environmental policy. Today, we know that up to 90% of chronic diseases are linked to environmental factors—ranging from pollutants and diet to social stressors. However, a comprehensive understanding of these exposures remains elusive.

Prof Hartung is on the Organising Committee of the Exposome Moonshot Project. He will be in the UK, ahead of the first Human Exposome Moonshot Forum in Washington in May, speaking at the International Network for Governmental Science Advice conference.

Journalists were invited to attend this briefing to meet Prof Hartung and learn more about how the Human Exposome Moonshot Project will redefine environmental health and public policy on a global scale over the next decades. He covered:

• What is the Human Exposome, and why is it as significant as the Human Genome Project?
• How do environmental exposures contribute to major diseases, and what percentage of disease burden can be attributed to these factors?
• Why is now the right time for a Human Exposome Moonshot? What technological breakthroughs make it feasible today?
• What key advances in artificial intelligence, exposomics, and real-time exposure monitoring are driving this initiative?
• How will the project impact healthcare, drug development, and regulatory science?
• What role will governments, industry, and public health organizations play in shaping and implementing the exposome agenda?
• How can stakeholders—scientists, policymakers, businesses, and the public—get involved in this initiative?
• What are the expected short- and long-term outcomes of the Human Exposome Project, and how will success be measured?

Speakers included:

Prof Thomas Hartung, Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Whiting School of Engineering, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., and University of Konstanz, Germany and Director at the Centers for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) in the US and Europe.