ProfessorPaoloVineis

Summary

Professor Paolo Vineis is Chair of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College, London and he leads the Exposome and Health theme of the MRC Centre for Environmentand Health at Imperial College (http://www.environment-health.ac.uk/ourresearch/ exposome-and-health).

He is currently Visiting Professor at the Italian Institute of Technology (Genova, Italy).

Prof. Vineis is a leading researcher in the fields of molecular epidemiology and exposomics. His latest research activities mainly focus on examining biomarkers of disease risk, complex exposures and intermediate biomarkers from omic platforms (including metabolomics and epigenetics) in large epidemiological studies as well as studying the effects of climate change on non-communicable diseases. He has over 930 publications (many as leading author) in journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Lancet, Lancet Oncology. He is a member of various international scientific and ethics committees (including the Committee of the US National Academy of Sciences on 21^st Century Risk Assessment) and vice-chair of the Ethics Committee at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, WHO). He has been a member of the Scientific Council of IARC.

Professor Vineis has extensive experience in leading International projects. He has coordinated the European Commission funded EXPOsOMICS project (valued at €8.7m, between 2012-2017). He is currently coordinating the Horizon 2020-funded project LIFEPATH (valued at €6 million, started in 2015). He is a Principal Investigator/Co-investigator of numerous international research projects, such as the European Commission funded GENAIR, ECNIS2, Envirogenomarkers, Hypergenes, ESCAPE and Transphorm networks, in which he has led Work Packages. In addition, he has attracted grants from the Leverhulme Trust, MRC, Cancer Research UK, HuGeF Foundation and the US National Cancer Institute. He is the director of the Unit of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Italian Institute of Genomic Medicine (IIGM, formerly known as Human Genetics Foundation – HuGeF), Torino, Italy and leads the Exposome and Health theme of the MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College (http://www.environment-health.ac.uk/exposomics-health).

He has written several books, including philosophical books (such as "Nel crepuscolo della probabilita", Einaudi 1999; "Modelli di rischio", Einaudi, 1990); “Health without Borders. Epidemics in the Era of Globalization”, Springer 2017 (see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Vineis); and "Prevenire" with Luca Carra and Roberto Cingolani, Einaudi, 2020

Exposome at the MRC Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College

Update february 2021

Research on the exposome is mainly (but not exclusively) performed within two initiatives, the MRC Centre for Environment and Health (Theme “Molecular signatures and pathways to disease”, led by Paolo Vineis – see appendix) and the HPRU Theme 2 (Molecules and radiation, led by Marc Chadeau-Hyam).

 The current document is a list of collaborators (internal and external) and of active projects. Details on some projects are contained in the Appendices.

 Staff February 2021

Paolo Vineis, Oliver Robinson, Jessica Laine, Anna Freni Sterrantino, Vagelis Handakas. ChungHo Lau, Vincenzo Salerno

 PhD students: Juan Rivillas, Aina Roca Barcelò

 External collaborators: Luca Petiti, Italian Institute of Technology, Genova; Alessio Naccarati, Italian Institute for Genomic Medicine (IIGM), Torino; Barbara Pardini, IIGM, Torino; Giovanni Fiorito, University of Sassari; Rossella Alfano, Hasselt University, Belgium; Emilie Courtin, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Erica Ponzi, Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Oslo; Sonia Dagnino, Imperial College

On-going activities

Oliver Robinson – metabolomic clocks; ChungHo Lau – metabolomic clocks; Jessica Laine – dose-response relationships with omics; diet, health and  planetary impact; Vagelis Handakas – omics and obesity, Ultra Processed Food (STOP network); Anna Freni Sterrantino – gig economy and epigenetic clocks; Giovanni Fiorito – epigenetic clocks; Rossella Alfano – obesity and epigenetics (STOP network); Juan Rivillas – migration, poverty and allostatic load in Colombia; Aina Roca Barcelò – pollution and climate change in Sao Paulo; Sonia Dagnino – agnostic metabolomics, adductomics and environmental exposures; Emilie Courtin – Emilie Courtin – effect of social interventions and education reforms on biological ageing and epigenetic clocks, syndemic concept in Lifepath; Luca Petiti – double impact of diet on health and environment, particulate from animal breeding; Erica Ponzi – adductomics and CVD; Sophie Hamilton – CKD in Malawi; Alessio Naccarati, Barbara Pardini – miRNA and environmental exposures, silicone wristbands. 

References: summary papers

EXPOSOMICS - What is new in the exposome?  Vineis P, Robinson O, Chadeau-Hyam M, Dehghan A, Mudway I, Dagnino S.Environ Int. 2020 Jun 30;143:105887. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.105887. Online ahead of print.PMID: 32619912

 LIFEPATH - Special Report: The Biology of Inequalities in Health: The Lifepath Consortium. Vineis P, Avendano-Pabon M, Barros H, Bartley M, Carmeli C, Carra L, Chadeau-Hyam M, Costa G, Delpierre C, D'Errico A, Fraga S, Giles G, Goldberg M, Kelly-Irving M, Kivimaki M, Lepage B, Lang T, Layte R, MacGuire F, Mackenbach JP, Marmot M, McCrory C, Milne RL, Muennig P, Nusselder W, Petrovic D, Polidoro S, Ricceri F, Robinson O, Stringhini S, Zins M.Front Public Health. 2020 May 12;8:118. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00118. eCollection 2020.PMID: 32478023

MRC Centre for Environment and Health: Molecular Signatures and Disease Pathways

The Molecular Signatures and Disease Pathways programme aims to improve our understanding of the causal link between exposures to common environmental contaminants and disease, by characterizing the individuals’ external and internal exposome (i.e. the sum of all exposures from conception onwards) particularly during critical periods of life, e.g. in utero, in childhood, etc.

 Our research in this area involves large population studies with collection of biological samples, using novel study designs and advanced multi-omic technologies (including epigenetics, proteomics, transcriptomics or metabolomics) to identify biomarkers of exposure and/or disease.

 The ultimate goal of this research is to reduce uncertainties in assessing the risk related to common environmental contaminants, by characterising the molecular signatures (biomarkers) of these exposures and identifying plausible pathways or networks through which they lead to disease initiation or progression. We are also exploring new approaches to measuring external exposures, including the use of silicone wristbands.

 Team

 Programme Leader: Professor Paolo Vineis (ICL)

Principal teams: P Vineis, M Chadeau-Hyam, A Dehghan, P Elliott, I Mudway, I Tzoulaki.

Associated teams: M Blangiardo, T Ebbels, E Holmes, M-R Jarvelin, O Robinson, M Toledano.

 Key Projects

• The EU FP7 EXPOsOMICS study demonstrated new approaches to assess environmental exposures and their effects, primarily focusing on air pollution and water disinfection by-products (DBPs). We showed that: different components in complex mixtures can act through separate or common molecular or metabolic pathways; levels of exposure to PM10 experienced in utero in four European areas influence cord blood metabolomic signals, and this can be perceived at low levels of exposure; chronic exposure to air pollution perturbs key pathways, that in turn are involved in asthma and cardiovascular disease
• The Horizon 2020 LIFEPATH, and DynaHEALTH projects applied multi-omic technologies to decipher environmental signals and their biological signatures and interactions. LIFEPATH investigated the determinants of diverging ageing pathways among individuals belonging to different socio-economic groups to identify the mechanisms by which the upstream and social determinants of health operate. In particular, we showed that, among other omic markers, epigenetic age acceleration is associated with risk factors for health and also to socio-economic status.
• The AIRLESS population panel study in inner and outer Beijing involves individual personal exposure monitoring of PM2.5, NO2/NOx, and O3 over a 7-day period in winter and summer seasons. We will carry out metabolomic analyses in blood samples obtained from AIRLESS participants for molecular signatures of these exposures, as demonstrated in the randomised Oxford Street II study which provided a proof-of-principle of the approach.
• We developed a new conceptual framework for improving hazard identification and risk assessment based on the model of pathway perturbation and “meet-in-the-middle”, i.e. agnostically investigating associations between exposures and omic perturbations, and between omic perturbations and disease outcomes, then identifying overlapping pathways that indicate plausible causal relationships and provide mechanistic evidence.
• We participated in the report of the US National Academy of Sciences report “Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluation”. Showing that the exposome paradigm can be applied to advanced risk assessment procedures for regulatory purposes.

Key Papers

1. Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto. Saltelli A, Bammer G, Bruno I, Charters E, Di Fiore M, Didier E, Nelson Espeland W, Kay J, Lo Piano S, Mayo D, Pielke R Jr, Portaluri T, Porter TM, Puy A, Rafols I, Ravetz JR, Reinert E, Sarewitz D, Stark PB, Stirling A, van der Sluijs J, Vineis P.Nature. 2020 Jun;582(7813):482-484. doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-01812-9.PMID: 32581374
2. Advancing human health risk assessment. Lanzoni A, Castoldi AF, Kass GE, Terron A, De Seze G, Bal-Price A, Bois FY, Delclos KB, Doerge DR, Fritsche E, Halldorsson T, Kolossa-Gehring M, Hougaard Bennekou S, Koning F, Lampen A, Leist M, Mantus E, Rousselle C, Siegrist M, Steinberg P, Tritscher A, Van de Water B, Vineis P, Walker N, Wallace H, Whelan M, Younes M. EFSA J. 2019 Jul 8;17(Suppl 1):e170712. doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2019.e170712
3. Short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution reveals a compound-specific circulating miRNA profile indicating multiple disease risks. Krauskopf J, van Veldhoven K, Chadeau-Hyam M, Vermeulen R, Carrasco-Turigas G, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Vineis P, de Kok TM, Kleinjans JC. Environ Int. 2019 Jul;128:193-200. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.04.063. Epub 2019 May 3
4. Socioeconomic position, lifestyle habits and biomarkers of epigenetic aging: a multi-cohort analysis. Fiorito G, McCrory C, Robinson O, Carmeli C, Rosales CO, Zhang Y, Colicino E, Dugué PA, Artaud F, McKay GJ, Jeong A, Mishra PP, Nøst TH, Krogh V, Panico S, Sacerdote C, Tumino R, Palli D, Matullo G, Guarrera S, Gandini M, Bochud M, Dermitzakis E, Muka T, Schwartz J, Vokonas PS, Just A, Hodge AM, Giles GG, Southey MC, Hurme MA, Young I, McKnight AJ, Kunze S, Waldenberger M, Peters A, Schwettmann L, Lund E, Baccarelli A, Milne RL, Kenny RA, Elbaz A, Brenner H, Kee F, Voortman T, Probst-Hensch N, Lehtimäki T, Elliot P, Stringhini S, Vineis P, Polidoro S; BIOS Consortium; Lifepath consortium. Aging (Albany NY). 2019 Apr 14;11(7):2045-2070. doi: 10.18632/aging.101900
5. ExpoApp: An integrated system to assess multiple personal environmental exposures. Donaire-Gonzalez D, Valentín A, van Nunen E, Curto A, Rodriguez A, Fernandez-Nieto M, Naccarati A, Tarallo S, Tsai MY, Probst-Hensch N, Vermeulen R, Hoek G, Vineis P, Gulliver J, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ. Environ Int. 2019 May;126:494-503. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.02.054. Epub 2019 Mar 5.
6. Multi-cohort study identifies social determinants of systemic inflammation over the life course. Berger E, Castagné R, Chadeau-Hyam M, Bochud M, d'Errico A, Gandini M, Karimi M, Kivimäki M, Krogh V, Marmot M, Panico S, Preisig M, Ricceri F, Sacerdote C, Steptoe A, Stringhini S, Tumino R, Vineis P, Delpierre C, Kelly-Irving M. Nat Commun. 2019 Feb 15;10(1):773. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08732-x. PMID:30770820
7. Socioeconomic position during pregnancy and DNA methylation signatures at three stages across early life: epigenome-wide association studies in the ALSPAC birth cohort. Alfano R, Guida F, Galobardes B, Chadeau-Hyam M, Delpierre C, Ghantous A, Henderson J, Herceg Z, Jain P, Nawrot TS, Relton C, Vineis P, Castagné R, Plusquin M. Int J Epidemiol. 2018 Dec 22. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyy259
8. Impact of short-term traffic-related air pollution on the metabolome - Results from two metabolome-wide experimental studies. van Veldhoven K, Kiss A, Keski-Rahkonen P, Robinot N, Scalbert A, Cullinan P, Chung KF, Collins P, Sinharay R, Barratt BM, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Rodoreda AA, Carrasco-Turigas G, Vlaanderen J, Vermeulen R, Portengen L, Kyrtopoulos SA, Ponzi E, Chadeau-Hyam M, Vineis P. Environ Int. 2019 Feb;123:124-131. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.11.034. Epub 2018 Dec 3.
9. Acute changes in DNA methylation in relation to 24 h personal air pollution exposure measurements: A panel study in four European countries. Mostafavi N, Vermeulen R, Ghantous A, Hoek G, Probst-Hensch N, Herceg Z, Tarallo S, Naccarati A, Kleinjans JCS, Imboden M, Jeong A, Morley D, Amaral AFS, van Nunen E, Gulliver J, Chadeau-Hyam M, Vineis P, Vlaanderen J. Environ Int. 2018 Nov;120:11-21. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.07.026. Epub 2018 Jul 25.
10. Assessment of Lung Cancer Risk on the Basis of a Biomarker Panel of Circulating Proteins. Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Etiology and Risk (INTEGRAL) Consortium for Early Detection of Lung Cancer, Guida F, Sun N, Bantis LE, Muller DC, Li P, Taguchi A, Dhillon D, Kundnani DL, Patel NJ, Yan Q, Byrnes G, Moons KGM, Tjønneland A, Panico S, Agnoli C, Vineis P, Palli D, Bueno-de-Mesquita B, Peeters PH, Agudo A, Huerta JM, Dorronsoro M, Barranco MR, Ardanaz E, Travis RC, Byrne KS, Boeing H, Steffen A, Kaaks R, Hüsing A, Trichopoulou A, Lagiou P, La Vecchia C, Severi G, Boutron-Ruault MC, Sandanger TM, Weiderpass E, Nøst TH, Tsilidis K, Riboli E, Grankvist K, Johansson M, Goodman GE, Feng Z, Brennan P, Johansson M, Hanash SM. JAMA Oncol. 2018 Oct 1;4(10):e182078. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2078
11. Perturbation of metabolic pathways mediates the association of air pollutants with asthma and cardiovascular diseases. Jeong A, Fiorito G, Keski-Rahkonen P, Imboden M, Kiss A, Robinot N, Gmuender H, Vlaanderen J, Vermeulen R, Kyrtopoulos S, Herceg Z, Ghantous A, Lovison G, Galassi C, Ranzi A, Krogh V, Grioni S, Agnoli C, Sacerdote C, Mostafavi N, Naccarati A, Scalbert A, Vineis P, Probst-Hensch N; EXPOsOMICS Consortium. Environ Int. 2018 Oct;119:334-345. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.06.025. Epub 2018 Jul 7.
12. Prediction of acute myeloid leukaemia risk in healthy individuals. Abelson S, Collord G, Ng SWK, Weissbrod O, Mendelson Cohen N, Niemeyer E, Barda N, Zuzarte PC, Heisler L, Sundaravadanam Y, Luben R, Hayat S, Wang TT, Zhao Z, Cirlan I, Pugh TJ, Soave D, Ng K, Latimer C, Hardy C, Raine K, Jones D, Hoult D, Britten A, McPherson JD, Johansson M, Mbabaali F, Eagles J, Miller JK, Pasternack D, Timms L, Krzyzanowski P, Awadalla P, Costa R, Segal E, Bratman SV, Beer P, Behjati S, Martincorena I, Wang JCY, Bowles KM, Quirós JR, Karakatsani A, La Vecchia C, Trichopoulou A, Salamanca-Fernández E, Huerta JM, Barricarte A, Travis RC, Tumino R, Masala G, Boeing H, Panico S, Kaaks R, Krämer A, Sieri S, Riboli E, Vineis P, Foll M, McKay J, Polidoro S, Sala N, Khaw KT, Vermeulen R, Campbell PJ, Papaemmanuil E, Minden MD, Tanay A, Balicer RD, Wareham NJ, Gerstung M, Dick JE, Brennan P, Vassiliou GS, Shlush LI. Nature. 2018 Jul;559(7714):400-404. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0317-6. Epub 2018 Jul 9.
13. DNA Methylome Marks of Exposure to Particulate Matter at Three Time Points in Early Life. Plusquin M, Chadeau-Hyam M, Ghantous A, Alfano R, Bustamante M, Chatzi L, Cuenin C, Gulliver J, Herceg Z, Kogevinas M, Nawrot TS, Pizzi C, Porta D, Relton CL, Richiardi L, Robinson O, Sunyer J, Vermeulen R, Vriens A, Vrijheid M, Henderson J, Vineis P. Environ Sci Technol. 2018 May 1;52(9):5427-5437. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.7b06447. Epub 2018 Apr 11.
14. Maximizing the Public Health Benefits from Climate Action. Thurston GD, De Matteis S, Murray K, Scheelbeek P, Scovronick N, Budolfson M, Spears D, Vineis P. Environ Sci Technol. 2018 Apr 3;52(7):3852-3853. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b00859. Epub 2018 Mar 7.
15. The human circulating miRNome reflects multiple organ disease risks in association with short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution. Krauskopf J, Caiment F, van Veldhoven K, Chadeau-Hyam M, Sinharay R, Chung KF, Cullinan P, Collins P, Barratt B, Kelly FJ, Vermeulen R, Vineis P, de Kok TM, Kleinjans JC. Environ Int. 2018 Apr;113:26-34. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.01.014. Epub 2018 Jan 28.
16. Blood transcriptional and microRNA responses to short-term exposure to disinfection by-products in a swimming pool. Espín-Pérez A, Font-Ribera L, van Veldhoven K, Krauskopf J, Portengen L, Chadeau-Hyam M, Vermeulen R, Grimalt JO, Villanueva CM, Vineis P, Kogevinas M, Kleinjans JC, de Kok TM. Environ Int. 2018 Jan;110:42-50. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.10.003. Epub 2017 Nov 6.
17. DNA methylation and exposure to ambient air pollution in two prospective cohorts. Plusquin M, Guida F, Polidoro S, Vermeulen R, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Campanella G, Hoek G, Kyrtopoulos SA, Georgiadis P, Naccarati A, Sacerdote C, Krogh V, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita H, Monique Verschuren WM, Sayols-Baixeras S, Panni T, Peters A, Hebels DGAJ, Kleinjans J, Vineis P, Chadeau-Hyam M. Environ Int. 2017 Nov;108:127-136. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.08.006. Epub 2017 Aug 24.
18. Acute changes in serum immune markers due to swimming in a chlorinated pool. Vlaanderen J, van Veldhoven K, Font-Ribera L, Villanueva CM, Chadeau-Hyam M, Portengen L, Grimalt JO, Zwiener C, Heederik D, Zhang X, Vineis P, Kogevinas M, Vermeulen R. Environ Int. 2017 Aug;105:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2017.04.009. Epub 2017 May 5
19. Epigenetic memory in response to environmental stressors. Vineis P, Chatziioannou A, Cunliffe VT, Flanagan JM, Hanson M, Kirsch-Volders M, Kyrtopoulos S. FASEB J. 2017 Jun;31(6):2241-2251. doi: 10.1096/fj.201601059RR. Epub 2017 Mar 9.
20. Socioeconomic status and the 25 × 25 risk factors as determinants of premature mortality: a multicohort study and meta-analysis of 1·7 million men and women. Stringhini S, Carmeli C, Jokela M, Avendaño M, Muennig P, Guida F, Ricceri F, d'Errico A, Barros H, Bochud M, Chadeau-Hyam M, Clavel-Chapelon F, Costa G, Delpierre C, Fraga S, Goldberg M, Giles GG, Krogh V, Kelly-Irving M, Layte R, Lasserre AM, Marmot MG, Preisig M, Shipley MJ, Vollenweider P, Zins M, Kawachi I, Steptoe A, Mackenbach JP, Vineis P, Kivimäki M; LIFEPATH consortium. Lancet. 2017 Mar 25;389(10075):1229-1237. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32380-7. Epub 2017 Feb 1. Erratum in: Lancet. 2017 Mar 25;389(10075):1194. Lancet. 2017 Mar 25;389(10075):1194.
21. Mutational signatures associated with tobacco smoking in human cancer. Alexandrov LB, Ju YS, Haase K, Van Loo P, Martincorena I, Nik-Zainal S, Totoki Y, Fujimoto A, Nakagawa H, Shibata T, Campbell PJ, Vineis P, Phillips DH, Stratton MR. Science. 2016 Nov 4;354(6312):618-622.
22. Hypomethylation of smoking-related genes is associated with future lung cancer in four prospective cohorts. Fasanelli F, Baglietto L, Ponzi E, Guida F, Campanella G, Johansson M, Grankvist K, Johansson M, Assumma MB, Naccarati A, Chadeau-Hyam M, Ala U, Faltus C, Kaaks R, Risch A, De Stavola B, Hodge A, Giles GG, Southey MC, Relton CL, Haycock PC, Lund E, Polidoro S, Sandanger TM, Severi G, Vineis P. Nat Commun. 2015 Dec 15;6:10192. doi: 10.1038/ncomms10192.

Academic positions

 Since 2004 -Chair of Environmental Epidemiology, Imperial College, London, UK

Since 2010 - Director, Unit of Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology, HuGeF Foundation, Torino, Italy (http://www.hugef-torino.org/site/ index.php)

Since 2001 - Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA

Teaching

Co-Director of BSc course – Global Health (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/school-public-health/study/undergraduate/bsc-global-health/) 

Research - Working Groups

EXPOSOMICS

The exposome refers to the totality of internal and external exposures which interact at a cellular and systems level to generate a metabolic/molecular signature which can be used to gain new understanding of the transition from health to disease. Such exposures come from a variety of sources including chemical and biological agents, gut microbial and psycho-social factors from pre-conception onwards, i.e., over the lifecourse.  Assessment of the exposome at different stages of the lifecourse gives new insights into causal factors and mechanisms, which eventually may lead to new preventive strategies and treatments for chronic disease.      
The exposome concept takes advantage of the rapid advances and availability in new technologies and the omics sciences. The external exposome can be measured with new more sensitive personal monitors and sensors. The internal exposome and the biological changes it induces in body molecules can be measured with high-throughput methods such as metabolomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, adductomics and epigenomics. 

Goals:

Exposomics is a European collaborative project with the following goals:

(a)  To use advanced personal exposure monitoring to accurately measure the air and water pollution related external exposome

(b)  To use high-throughput methods (adductomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, epigenomis) to measure the internal exposome

(c)  To integrate knowledge from the methods above to estimate the risk of disease in several population-based studies in Europe.

(see website http://www.exposomicsproject.eu/)

Team at Imperial College: Paolo Vineis (Principal Investigator), John Gulliver, Marc Chadeau-Hyam, Toby Athersuch, Karin Van Veldhoven, Sonia Dagnino, Jessica Laine, Maryam Karimi, Oliver Robinson,Terrence Simmons, Michaela Dijmarescu.

Funding: This project is funded by the European Commission (FP7).

Media: http://www.nature.com/news/daily-dose-of-toxics-to-be-tracked-1.11901

Selected EXPOsOMICS papers:

Font-Ribera, L., Kogevinas, M., Schmalz, C., Zwiener, C., Marco, E., Grimalt, J.O., Zhang, X., Mitch, W., Critelli, R., Naccarati, A., Heederik, D., Spithoven, J., Arjona, L., de Bont, J., Gracia-Lavendan, E., Villanueva, C. “Environmental and personal determinants of the uptake of disinfectioon by-products during swimming”. Environ Res (2016) 149: 206-215.

Gulliver, J., de Hoogh, K., Hoek, G., Vienneau, D., Fecht, D., Hansell, A. “Back-extrapolated and year-specific NO2 land use regression models for Great Britain – do they yield different exposure assessment?”. Environ Int (2016) 92-93: 202-209.

Vineis, P., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Gmuender, H., Gulliver, j., Herceg, Z., Kleinjans, J., Kogevinas, M., Kyrtopoulos, S., Niuwenhuijsen, M., Phillips, D.H., Probst-Hensch, N., Scalbert, A., Vermeulen, R, Wild, C.P. “The exposome in practice: design of the EXPOsOMICS project”. Int Hyg Environ Res (2016) pii: S1438-4639 (16)30130-4.

Van Nunen, E., Vermeulen, R., Tsai, M-Y., Probst-Hensch, N., Ineichen, A., Davey, M.E., Imboden, M., Ducret-Sitch, R., Naccarati, A., Raffaele, D., Ranzi, A., Ivaldi, C., Galassi, C., Nieuwenhuijsen, M.J., Curto, A., Donaire-Gonzalez, D., Cirach, M., Chatzi, L., Kampouri, M., Vlaanderen, J., Meliefste, K., Buijtenhuijs, D., Brunekreef, B., Morley, D., Vineis, P., Gulliver, J., Hoek, G. “Land use regression models for Ultrafine particles in six European areas”. Env Sci Tech (2017) 51(6): 3336-3345.

Vlaanderen, J., Leenders, M., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Portengen, L., Kyrtopoulos, S., Bergdahl, I.A., Johansson, A-S., Hebels, D.G.A.J., de Kok, T.M.C.M., Vineis, P. and Vermeulen, R.C.H. “Exploring the Nature of Prediagnostic Blood Transcriptome Markers of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia by Assessing their Overlap with the Transcriptome at the Clinical Stage”. BMC Genomics. 18(1):239.

Vlaanderen, J., van Veldhoven, K., Font-Ribera, L., Villanueva, C., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Portengen, L., Vineis, P., Kogevinas, M., Vermeulen, R.C.H. “Acute changes in serum immune markers due to swimming in a chlorinated pool”. Env Int. 2017 Aug; 1051-11. Epub 2017 May 5.

 

LIFEPATH: SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND HEALTHY AGEING

The LIFEPATH project is coordinated by Paolo Vineis at Imperial College London and funded by the European Commission. Healthy ageing is an achievable goal in society as it is already experienced by individuals in the highest socioeconomic groups. Individuals with high socioeconomic status (SES) experience much better health and healthy ageing than groups with low socioeconomic status. The overarching aim of LIFEPATH is to provide updated, relevant and innovative evidence for underpinning future policies and strategies for the promotion of healthy ageing, targeted disease prevention and clinical interventions that address the issue of social disparities in ageing and the social determinants of health. The gap between social groups in terms of mortality, functional performances and cognitive capacity accumulates over the two phases resulting in widening inequalities with ageing. Biological changes deriving from adverse environmental and social circumstances are potentially reversible and preventable although rapid deteriorations are also possible as a consequence of macro-scale phenomena such as the economic recession.

These objectives will be accomplished by using different data sources:

   1. Europe-wide and national surveys (updated to 2010), including EU-27.

   2. Longitudinal cohorts (across Europe) with intense phenotyping and repeat biological samples (total population >33,000).

   3. Other large cohorts with biological samples (total population >202,000) and a large registry dataset with over a million individuals and very rich information on work trajectories and health.

   4. A randomized experiment on conditional cash transfer for poverty reduction in New York City.

Data will be harmonized and integrated to conceptualize healthy ageing as a composite outcome at different stages of life, resulting from life-course environmental, behavioural and social determinants.

Partners include University College London (M Kivimaki, M Marmot), The Lausanne University (S Stringhini), The Erasmus University in Rotterdam (J Mackenbach), the London School of Economics (M Avendano), the Toulouse University (T Lang), the Columbia University in New York (P Muennig), the Finnish Institute for Occupational Health (H Alenius), The University of Torino (G Costa), The HuGeF Foundation (S Polidoro), INSERM Paris (M Goldberg, F Clavel), Trinity College Dublin (R Layte), the Zadig SME (R Satolli), the Lisbon University (H Barros) and the Cancer Institute of Victoria, Australia (G Giles).

Selected LIFEPATH papers:

Stringhini, S., Carmeli, C., Jokela, M, Avendano, M., Guida, F., Ricceri, F., d’Errico, A., Barros, H., Chadeau-Hyam, M., Clavel-Chapelon, F., Costa, G., Delpierre, C., Fraga, S. Goldberg, M., Giles, G.G., Krogh, V., Kelly-Irving, M., Layte, R., Lasserre, A.M., Marmot, M.G., Preisig, M., Shipley, M.J., Vollenweider, P., Zins, M., Kawachi, I., Steptoe, A., Mackenbach, J.P., Vineis, P., Kivimaki, M & the LIFEPATH Consortium. Socioeconomic status and the 25x25 risk factors as determinants of premature mortality: a multicohort study and meta-analysis of 1.7 million men and women. Lancet. 2017 Mar;389(10075):1229-1237. Doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32380-7.Epub 2017 Feb 1.

Castagne, R., Delpierre, C., Kelly-Irving, M., Campanella, G., Guida, F., Krogh, V., Palli, D., Panico, S., Sacerdote, C., Tumino, R., Kytopoulos, S., Hasniejeh, F.S., Lang, T., Vermeulen, R., Vineis, P., Stringhini, S., Chadeau-Hyam, M. A life course approach to explore the biological embedding of socioeconomic position and social mobility through circulating inflammatory markers. Sci Rep. 2016 Apr;6:25170. Doi: 10.1038/srep25170.

D’Errico, A., Ricceri, F., Stringhini, S., Carmeli, C., Kivimaki, M., Bartley, M., McCrory, C., Bochud, M., Vollenweider, P., Tumino, R., Goldberg, M., Zins, M., Barros, H., Giles, G., Severi, G., Costa, G., Vineis, P. and the LIFEPATH Consortium. Socioeconomic indicators in epidemiologic research: a practical example from the LIFEPATH study. PLoS One. 2017 Mar;12(5):e0178071. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178071. eCollection 2017.

WORKING GROUP ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH

The working group works across the School of Public Health, the School of Engineering and the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. Current Members: Paolo Vineis (School of Public Health), Adrian Butler (School of Engineering, Hydrology), Kris Murray (Member, Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, Global change ecology and health),  Aneire Khan (collaborator, Dhaka), Francesca De Donato (PhD student, School of Public Health, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health),Terrence Simmons (Programme Manager, School of Public Health, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health).

Recent projects:

Climate change and salinity in Bangladesh

High drinking water salinity is found in deltaic areas around the world that frequently experience salt-water inundations. Climatic changes increase the inundation risk of vulnerable areas. The study area for this project, located in southwest Bangladesh, is one of most vulnerable areas in Southeast Asia. Due to the high population density, unprotected structure of most drinking water sources and lack of alternative (ground water) options, inundation-based salinization of drinking water sources is severe. Sodium concentrations above 1000mg/l have been measured in the area. The IPCC reports to have high confidence that salinity problems in the study area – and similar deltaic areas around the world – will further expand in the near future. Populations in these deltaic areas are often poor and lack resources to obtain water from alternative sources; they fully rely on highly saline water. The current salinity levels were estimated to cause an additional salt intake in magnitude of grams for a large share of the population.

This work is based on a collaboration with the School of Engineering, Bangor University, Dhaka University and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B).

Funding: The project is funded by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust.

Media:

http://m.scidev.net/global/water/multimedia/salt-water-contamination-bangladesh.html?hootPostID=93be03e2da48f479bd70732202a7babf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlAvDvU5LDU

Selected papers:

Khan AE, Scheelbeek PF, Shilpi AB, Chan Q, Mojumder SK, Rahman A, Haines A, Vineis P.  Salinity in drinking water and the risk of (pre)eclampsia and gestational hypertension in coastal Bangladesh: a case-control study. PLoS One. 2014 Sep 30;9(9):e108715.        

Vineis P, Khan A. Climate change-induced salinity threatens health.
Science. 2012 Nov 23;338(6110):1028-9.  

   
Vineis P, Chan Q, Khan A. Climate change impacts on water salinity and health. J Epidemiol Glob Health. 2011 Dec;1(1):5-10.

Scheelbeek, P., Khan, A.E., Mojumder, S., Elliott, P. and Vineis, P. Drinking water sodium and elevated blood pressure of healthy pregnant women in salinity-affected coastal areas. Hypertension. 2016 Aug.;68(2):464-70. Doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.116.07743. Epub 2016 Jun 13.

BIOMARKER RESEARCH: EPIGENETICS

The MRC-PHE Centre on Environment and Health is conducting a large work programme in biomarker research which helps to underpin the Centre research themes, by developing and validating biological (internal) markers and incorporating them into epidemiological research. Such research includes several collaborative projects in which techniques able to detect hundreds to many thousands of signals in body fluids (proteomics, metabonomics and transcriptomics) are used to characterise exposures to environmental contaminants and identify intermediate markers that lead to chronic diseases. These investigations take advantage of the large prospective investigations with Biobanks available at the Centre, including EPIC and Lolipop. Our strategy has several goals: (a) generate new hypotheses on the etiology of non-communicable diseases (60% of cancer is still unexplained, and much more of neurological disease); (b) lend biological credibility to associations found in observational studies, and strengthen causality; (c) identify mechanisms of action of environmental exposures; (d) contribute to the estimation of the burden of disease associated with environmental factors.

In particular, we have a strong programme on epigenomics, in collaboration with research groups across Imperial College (Brown, Flanagan) and internationally (IIGM Turin, International Agency for Research on Cancer). We have launched (Flanagan, Vineis) a consortium for the pooled analysis of epigenome-wide studies (EWAC), which encompasses 12 different cohort studies in Europe, US and Australia with genome-wide methylation data in relation to environmental exposures.         

Examples of novel biomarkers identified within the Centre include: strong and novel transcriptomic signals identified in relation to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (1); the predictive ability of (14;18) translocations in white blood cells for follicular lymphoma (2); a novel long term biomarker of past exposure to tobacco smoke (methylation of AHRR) (3, 4); and omic measures in relation to external exposures (heavy metals, POPs) (5). Papers are in preparation or in press on novel epigenetic markers of obesity and of lung cancer.

Members: Paolo Vineis, James Flanagan, Bob Brown, Marc Chadeau-Hyam, Marc Gunter, Karin Van Veldhoven, Gianluca Campanella, Michelle Plusquin, Florence Guida, Rachel Kelly.

Selected papers:

Chadeau-Hyam M., Vermeulen, R., Hebels, DGAJ, et al. Prediagnostic transcriptomic markers of chronic lymphocytic leukemia reveal perturbations 10 years before diagnostic. Ann Oncol. 2014 May;25(5):1065-722.

Roulland S, Kelly, RS., Morgado, E., Riboli, E., Vineis, P., Nadel, B. et al. t(14;18) Translocation: a predictive blood biomarker for follicular lymphoma. J Clin Oncol. 2014 May 1;32(13):1347-55;

Guida F., Sandanger, T., Vineis, P., Chadeau-Hyam, M. et al.  Dynamics of smoking-induced genome-wide methylation changes with time since smoking cessation Hum Mol Genet. 2015 Apr 15;24(8):2349-59;

Shenker N., Polidoro, S., van Veldhoven, K., Sacerdote, C., Ricceri, F., Birrell, M.A., Belvisi, M.G., Brown, R., Vineis, P. and Flanagan, J.M. Epigenome-wide association study in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC-Turin) identifies novel genetic loci associated with smoking. Hum MolGenet. 2013;22(5):843-51;

Other papers:

Wild CP, Bucher JR, de Jong BW, Dillner J, von Gertten C, Groopman JD, Herceg Z, Holmes E, Holmila R, Olsen JH, Ringborg U, Scalbert A, Shibata T, Smith MT, Ulrich C, Vineis P, McLaughlin J. Translational cancer research: balancing prevention and treatment to combat cancer globally. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2014 Dec 16;107(1):353.

Vineis P, Wild CP. Global cancer patterns: causes and prevention. Lancet. 2014; 383(9916): 549-57.

Vineis P, Chatziioannou A, Cunliffe VT, Flanagan JM, Hanson M, Kirsch-Volders M, Kyrtopoulos S. Epigenetic memory in response to environmental stressors. FASEB J. 2017 Mar 9. pii: fj.201601059RR. doi: 10.1096/fj.201601059RR.

Frisoni GB, Boccardi M,  Vineis P, Visser PJ, Yasui Y, Winblad B et al. Strategic roadmap for an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease based on biomarkers. LANCET NEUROLOGY 16(8):661-676.

OTHER APPOINTMENTS AND HONOURS

1992-1994: President, Italian Association of Epidemiology

1995-1998: Member of the Scientific Council, International

Agency for Research on Cancer

2003- : Member of the scientific committee, Italian

Association for Cancer Research

2004-2010: Member of the Advisory Board, UK Molecular

Epidemiology Group

2005-2013: Member, Committee on carcinogenicity of chemicals of the

UK Department of  Health (COC).

2007-2010: Member, Consiglio Superiore di Sanità

(Department of  Health, Italy)

2008- : Member, Scientific Board, BIOS Centre for Studies

In Biopolitics, University of Piemonte Orientale

2008-2013: Member, Ethics and Governing Council, UK

Biobank, Wellcome Trust

2008- : Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Canceropole

Paris Ile-de-France

2009-: PI, Biomarkers section (now Exposome and Health), MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health at ICL and King’s College

2010–: Vice-Chair, Ethics Committee, International

Agency for Research on Cancer

2015-2016: Member, US National Academy of Science Committee on 21^st Century Risk Assessment

BOOKS:

Vineis P. Health without borders. Epidemics in the era of globalization. Springer International Publishing AG. (2017)

Vineis P Et al. Metabolic Polymorphisms and Susceptibility to Cancer. Scientific Publication No. 48. INTERNATIONAL AGENCY FOR RESEARCH ON CANCER (1999).

Vineis P. Nel crepuscolo della probabilita'. Einaudi, Torino (1999).

Vineis P. Modelli di rischio. Einaudi, Torino (1990).

Molecular Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases.  Eds C. Wild, P. Vineis and S. Garte, published byWiley Press, 2008

JOURNALS:

 Since 1993: Editorial Consultant of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

Since 1995: member of the Editorial Board of Biomarkers

Since 1998: member of the Editorial Board of Mutation Research-Reviews in Mutation Research

Since 2000: member of the Editorial Board, International Journal of Cancer

Since 2003: member of the Editorial Board, Cancer Epidemiology. Biomarkers and Prevention

Since 2004: member of the Editorial Board, Carcinogenesis

Since 2008: member of the Editorial Board, European Journal of Cancer

Since 2009: Associate Editor, Journal of Cancer Epidemiology

Since 2009: Associate Editor, European Journal of Clinical Investigations

2010-2014: Senior Editor, Mutagenesis

AWARDS:

2005 - Distinguished lectures in occupational and environmental epidemiology: ”The integration of mechanistic data into the evaluation of environmental carcinogens”, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda (USA), Branch of Epidemiology, US National Cancer Institute

2010 Enrico Fermi Award for best Italian book on public understanding of science

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

More Publications