New platform for exposome analysis While it has long been known that our genetic background determines our susceptibility to a particular disease, the importance of the environment to individual health is increasingly widely recognised. Now that it is possible to sequence the human genome, scientists are looking to analyse our exposome in greater detail, a topic at the heart of Dr David J. Cocovi-Solberg’s research.
Our individual health
is influenced by both our genetic background and the environment around us, which may leave us more susceptible to developing certain diseases. It is today possible to sequence the human genome, now researchers are developing methods to analyse the exposome, which can be broadly thought of as the environmental equivalent, our accumulated environmental exposures over the course of our lives. “The importance of the environment to our health is increasingly recognised. As scientists, we need a way to quantify the environment, and this is what exposomics is about,” explains Dr David J. Cocovi-Solberg, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). As the Principal Investigator of a project backed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Dr CocoviSolberg is developing new stand-alone platforms for exposome analysis, placing a particular emphasis on miniaturisation. “This would help in terms of the portability of these platforms, which will be necessary to enable in situ analysis of environmental and clinical samples,” he says.
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Exposome The exposome is not just about water and soil but also other environmental samples as well, while the internal exposome, including an individual’s oxidative stress and metabolic factors, is also an important consideration. As an environmental chemist, Dr CocoviSolberg’s expertise lies in analysing water, soil and air samples, which is typically done using a technique called liquid chromatography
chromatography columns at very high flow rates to take advantage of extraordinary effects, and so the sample preparation is very fast. As the systems are small and portable, if we want to increase the analysis frequency, we can simply parallelise the system.” As part of his work Dr Cocovi-Solberg is collaborating closely with the VICI group, a fluidic component manufacturer. This work has its roots in Dr Cocovi-Solberg’s experience of
The importance of the environment to our health is increasingly recognised. As scientists, we need a way to quantify the environment, and this is what exposomics is about. mass spectrometry (LC-MS). “Currently LC-MS is applied to both environmental samples and to samples from the internal exposome,” he says. In some cases it can take quite a long time to prepare the different samples for analysis, which is an important issue in the project. “We are looking at miniaturising the sample preparation, using turbulent flow chromatography,” continues Dr Cocovi-Solberg. “We use our miniaturised
using relatively old equipment while studying for his PhD. “There were cables and tubes everywhere, and we saw that we could simplify it,” he explains. Subsequently Dr CocoviSolberg and his colleagues published a paper on a specific valve prototype that could work more effectively, now he is looking to build further on this research. “I’ve been looking at how we can design a new small and portable valve or pump, that will centralise many
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