# Mapping the Plasma Exposome and its Association with Human Cardiovascular Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2020 · $586,689

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Human physiology and disease pathobiology are a manifestation of underlying genetic predisposition
interacting with superimposed environmental exposures. Whereas genetic factors are generally stable from
conception, environmental exposures are dynamic over the lifespan, and ultimately account for up to 90% of
population-attributable risk for human disease, including for cardiovascular disease, the number cause of
mortality in the developed world. The totality of environmental exposures, or the ‘exposome’, represents the
aggregate of both internal exposures originating from host state/physiology and host microbiota, as well as
external exposures deriving from toxicants and chemicals, aerosolized particulate matter and pollution,
infectious agents, as well as diet and drugs. These environmental exposures result in the introduction of small
molecules into human circulation where they may be monitored as biomarker surrogates of specific exposures
even years or decades prior to onset of overt disease. To date, targeted approaches have begun to detail the
small molecules that comprise the plasma exposome in humans. Still lacking, however, is a global view of the
thousands of known and yet undiscovered small molecules that comprise the human exposome on a
population level scale and rigorous association of these small molecules with the prospective development of
human disease. The fundamental barrier in our understanding of the exposome and its role in human
disease remains the lack of advanced analytical approaches that enable the simultaneous and rapid measure
of the thousands of small molecules that comprise the plasma exposome on a population level scale. In this
NIEHS Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) Award, it is our central goal to comprehensively
map the human plasma exposome, understand its dynamic nature over time, and determine its role in human
cardiovascular disease. To do so, we will apply novel, high throughput mass spectrometry based approaches
to measure the thousands of environmentally derived small molecules present in human plasma. In serial
plasma samples obtained over time from 1000 healthy individuals we will determine the natural variation in the
exposome from individual to individual and over time in a single individual, the components of the exposome
attributable to specific environmental exposures, and the relationship between the exposome and over forty
baseline clinical demographics. Additionally, in two independent, large scale prospective epidemiological
cohorts, we will determine the association between specific exposome related small molecules, interaction with
disease associated genetic variants, and the prospective development of cardiovascular disease years in
advance. This NIEHS ONES award will provide support for a uniquely poised Early State Investigator with
diverse expertise in mass spectrometry based analytics, environmental epidemiology, computational sciences,
cardiovascular biomed...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9860924
- **Project number:** 5R01ES027595-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Mohit Jain
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $586,689
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-02-01 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9860924

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9860924, Mapping the Plasma Exposome and its Association with Human Cardiovascular Disease (5R01ES027595-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9860924. Licensed CC0.

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