Overview
NINDS seeks to promote exposomic research by engaging the neuroscience community across the basic-translational-clinical continuum to focus on the effect of external, internal, and behavioral risk factors on neurological health. The concept of the "exposome", coined in 2005, includes all exogenous (e.g., environmental toxicants and climate), endogenous (e.g., microbiome and epigenetic mechanisms), and behavioral (e.g., psychosocial stress and lifestyle) risk factors.
In 2022, (NINDS) established the Office of Neural Exposome and Toxicology Research (ONETOX) to lead a new emphasis on noninheritable factors of neurological disease and disorders within the NINDS mission. To guide near- and medium-term efforts to cultivate neural exposome research, NINDS charged a Working Group of the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NANDS) Council comprised of external experts to identify research priorities.
Goals for the priority setting effort include:
- Better define what part of exposome research is within the NINDS mission
- Identify and prioritize areas of neural exposome research within the NINDS mission
- Identify best practices for communicating with and engaging neuroscientists in exposome research
- Identify best practices for fostering more collaboration between NINDS and other NIH institutes
- Identify tools and resources that advance neural exposome research
An internal NINDS working group, led by ONETOX and comprised of program staff across all extramural research divisions, are developing implementation actions.