We are especially proud that we serve as the NIH-funded Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) Laboratory Network Hub. The goal of HHEAR is to provide the research community access to laboratory and statistical analyses to add or expand the inclusion of environmental exposures in their research and to make that data publicly available as a means to improve our knowledge of the comprehensive effects of environmental exposures on human health throughout the life course. Until HHEAR, and its precursor, the Children’s Environmental Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR), it was not possible for researchers to keep pace with the rapid rate at which new chemicals are introduced. HHEAR represents a change in the philosophy of environmental research, moving towards acceptance of, and even embracing, data-driven science as a tool for chemical biomarker discovery. Data-driven research has led to an explosion of discoveries in genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Exposomics is a relatively new ‘omic’ science that is rapidly evolving.

Mount Sinai received three HHEAR grants in 2019. One is for the Data Center led by Susan Teitelbaum, PhD, and 2 lab hub grants. The first supports an untargeted exposome assay lab hub led by Manish Arora, BDS, MPH, PhD, FICD, and the second supports a complex mixtures targeted lab hub led by Robert Wright, MD, MPH. All together these grants represent over 30 million dollars in new NIH funding over the next 5 years and firmly establishes Mount Sinai as a leader in exposomics.