Santiago Exposome Symposium:
Integrating Environmental Exposures into Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias
25-27 September 2025 | Club Manquehue, Santiago, Chile
From September 25–27, 2025, more than 100 scientists, clinicians, and trainees from around the world gathered in Santiago, Chile, for the Second Latin American Exposome Symposium—a three-day meeting advancing global collaboration on how environmental exposures influence brain health and aging.
Organized by faculty from the Institute for Exposomic Research and the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York), together with the University of Chile’s Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA), the Center for Geroscience, Mental Health and Metabolism (GERO – Chile), and the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico, the symposium featured 28 expert talks and 27 poster presentations.
“The Santiago Symposium showed what’s possible when diverse scientific communities come together with a shared commitment to understanding how the environment shapes health throughout life,” said Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of Environmental Medicine and Co-Director of the Institute for Exposomic Research at Mount Sinai.
Bridging Two Scientific Worlds
The symposium brought together two scientific communities—researchers in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) and in environmental health and exposomics. By connecting these disciplines, participants underscored the value of integrating environmental, clinical, and biological data to uncover new pathways for prevention and intervention.
“Interventions in our environment and behaviour matter as much — and perhaps even more — than medicine,” said R. Sean Morrison, MD, Eleanor and Howard C. Katz Professor and Chair of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. “By understanding our lifetime exposome—the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the stress we carry—we can chart a path toward healthier aging and reduce the burden of dementia.”
Advancing Global Exposomics
Rick Woychik, PhD, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and
National Toxicology Program, emphasized that advancing global exposomics requires a bold, coordinated vision—linking genes and environment through cutting-edge technologies, international collaboration, and shared data frameworks.
Attendees stressed the importance of studying, in an integrated manner, the combined effects of multiple exposures—chemical, social, and biological. They called for a broader definition of the exposome that includes behavioral and physiological factors such as sleep, stress, and daily routines. Discussions on the clinical implementation of exposomics offered valuable insights into how exposure science can be translated into real-world public-health and medical strategies.
“At the symposium, the novel Anthroposomic approach was presented, emphasizing the essential inclusion of human–environment interactions within the exposome framework to enable the design of effective public health interventions,” said Martha M. (Mara) Téllez Rojo, MSc, DSc, Professor, National Institute of Public Health (INSP), Mexico.
Strengthening Regional Capacity
Participants also emphasized the importance of empowering regional researchers and integrating existing cohorts to accelerate discovery and ensure equitable participation across countries. Strengthening laboratory infrastructure, bioinformatics training, technology transfer, and understanding human–environment interactions to make exposome research actionable for public health interventions were identified as essential—enabling investigators in Latin America and other low- and middle-income regions to lead exposomic research that both directly benefits their populations and fosters meaningful exchange with the larger global community.
Poster Session and Awards
The poster competition showcased the depth and diversity of emerging exposomic science—from air-pollution modeling and nutritional epidemiology to biomarker discovery and social determinants of brain health. The top poster presentations were:
1st Place:
• Adrielle Martins de Oliveira, MSc, PhD Student, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
“Sex-Specific Exposome Profiling: Mapping Prenatal to Postnatal Environmental Influences on Psychopathology”
2nd Place:
• Pablo Knobel, PhD, MSc, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
“Urban Nature Profiles and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk: A Study of Diverse Metrics”
3rd Place (Tie):
• Luiza Flavia Veiga Francisco, PhD, Educational and Research Institute/ Barretos Cancer Hospital, Brazil
“miRNAs Related to Pesticide Exposure Indicate Risk for Multiple Neurological Diseases”
• Karla Rangel Moreno, PhD Student, National Institute of Public Health (INSP – Mexico)
“Non-optimal Temperature and Mortality from Diabetes and Kidney Disease in 329 Latin American Cities”
Toward a Global Human Exposome Project
Following two and a half days of scientific sessions, an extended collaboration meeting charted next steps toward a unified Human Exposome Project—an international initiative modeled after the Human Genome Project. Participants called for shared frameworks, open databases, and sustained collaboration across regions to build a truly global exposomic network.
Support
This event was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through:
• Grants #R13AG087672, #P30AG028741, and #P01AG066605 from the National Institute on Aging (NIA)
• Grant #P30ES023515 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
• Grant #UL1TR004419 from the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program under the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
• Additional support provided by LinusBio
Further Reading
Read additional reflections on the NEXUS blog by Chirag Patel, PhD (Harvard/NEXUS) and Robert Wright, MD, MPH (Mount Sinai)