Genetics and Environmental Science: A Sensible Combination
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 05.18.07
At first blush, it would certainly seem as though genetics and environmental science, even in the context of environmentally-induced human diseases, share little in common. Whereas researchers in the field of genetics have primarily focused their efforts on understanding and finding genetic factors for inheritable diseases, those in the latter discipline have been trying to identify diseases whose etiology lies in a variety of environmental factors, such as exposure to contaminated samples of air and water or to chemical pollutants.
Spurred in part by concerns over climate change and worsening environmental conditions, there is new a drive to reconcile advances made in these separate disciplines by placing a stronger emphasis on understanding how genetic factors and environmental exposures interact to induce adverse effects and prompt disease development in otherwise healthy individuals. One potential solution: sensor technologies that could provide accurate quantitative measures of chemical and biological hazards or that could characterize the "biological fingerprint" left by a particular class of environmental stressors.
New sensing technologies derived from advances made in nanotechnology and nanoengineering, medical diagnostics and biodefense could be adapted for use in the exposure sciences. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which are artificial receptors, could act as surrogates for recognition mediators in the body such as antibodies and cells. If designed correctly, they would have three main advantages: ease-of-use, portability and lack of constant monitoring through sample processing and analysis in a laboratory.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently embraced this approach by launching the Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI), which seeks to develop new non-invasive instruments and biomarkers to assess interactions between environmental exposures and genetic variations that lead to human disease. With progress in the field still in its infancy, the NIH has started several new programs, with a focus on environmental genomics, to train a generation of scientists that will be comfortable straddling both disciplines.
::MEDICINE: Environmental Biology and Human Disease, ::Israel & US: Really, Really Small Ways For Purifying Water
See also: ::Greenwashing Versus Voluntary Pollution Prevention: A Test Of Global Understanding, ::Blood Levels Of Flame Retardants Correlate With House Dust Exposure
