Oculomics meets exposomics: a roadmap for applying multi-modal ocular biomarkers in precision environmental health research
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Precision environmental health (PEH) is an emerging field that seeks to understand how diverse environmental exposures interact with individual biological and genetic factors to influence health outcomes. While recent advances in exposomics have enabled systematic characterization of the exposome, the integrated compilation of all physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial influences that affect biology and health, identifying and developing sensitive biomarkers remains a critical challenge. The human eye offers unique potential for non-invasive biomarker discovery. Ocular biomarkers can be utilized not only for diagnostics and therapeutic responses of ocular diseases, but also for monitoring environmental exposures and predicting systemic health outcomes. Retinal imaging modalities such as color fundus photography, optical coherence tomography, and optical coherence tomography angiography capture biomarkers linked to environmental exposures and systemic conditions like cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, a field known as oculomics. Similarly, ocular fluids, such as tears, aqueous humor and vitreous humor, may also reflect pollution-induced oxidative stress and inflammation and systemic health conditions. This paper summarizes current evidence on how ocular biomarkers can bridge environmental exposures and systemic health outcomes, and proposes future research directions using state of the art methodologies such as exposome-wide association studies, high dimensional mediation analysis, and multi-modal foundation models. Despite encouraging progress, significant challenges remain, including the need for large and standardized datasets, rigorous validation, and ethical safeguards to ensure equitable application. Advances in artificial intelligence, including federated learning, alongside global consortium efforts, will be essential to overcome these barriers. Addressing these gaps will unlock the full potential of oculomics and exposomics, advancing the goals of precision environmental health.
Source: Exposome
Institutions: National University of Singapore, Singapore National Eye Center, Singapore Eye Research Institute, Duke-NUS Medical School, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Veterans Health Administration, The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Atlanta VA Medical Center, Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital, Tsinghua University, University of Nottingham, Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, University of Birmingham, Stanford University
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,100
Funders: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, AstraZeneca, UK Research and Innovation, Duke-NUS Medical School, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality, Russian Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Medical Research Council, National Medical Research Council, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, DOD Prostate Cancer Research Program, DOD Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program
Awards: G100871905, RadxTools for assessing tumor treatment response on imaging, G1115584191, G1266336578, G1313646905, G1478154455, G1817069843, G1828163000, G2117806883, G2228475719, G2291306530, G2420765693, G252213851, G2556976833, G2689512122, G278880248, G3068466812, G3075835325, G3137332008, G338730684, G3470946970, G3564444776, G3601786360, G3716872827, G4058520128, G406353596, Lung cancer in East Africa and the relationship to HIV-1 infection: epidemiology, molecular characterization and imaging, G4222322349, Development of Novel Antimicrobial Peptides for Infectious Keratitis and Antimicrobial Resistance, G5081959986, HistoTools: A suite of digital pathology tools for quality control, annotation and dataset identification, G5758079931, G5850682332, G5861339792, G6190647152, G6203276117, G620757052, G6328431212, G7124118669, Computer-Assisted Histologic Evaluation of Cardiac Allograft Rejection, G7661547612, G7935030457, G8456267142, G8904608324, MRC IAA 2021 University of Birmingham, G9000000780, G9000002150, G9000021175, G9000023716, G9000064711, G9000153031, The Omics and Mixtures Integration on Traffic exposure and Preterm Birth (OMIT-PTB) Study, Novel Radiomics for Predicting Response to Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer
OpenAlex ID: W4416087148