METARISK

Metarisk aims to develop new metabolomics methods to assess a population’s exposure to chemical or radiotoxicological contaminations. Our strategy does not aim to identify exposure sources (such as toxic chemical agents) but, rather, to identify metabolomics biomarkers of exposure. Metabolomics yields qualitative and quantitative information on the nature and abundance of specific small organic molecules in biological samples that can attest to their contamination. The identification of these specific molecules should then enable discrimination between exposed and non-exposed individuals in a given population. The Metarisk project was launched recently: Our objective is to identify and characterize urinary metabolomic signatures of specific biological effects following exposure to different chemical sources. To best benefit from the combined expertise of the Metarisk team, we are initially focusing on chemical compounds that induce thyroid disruptor effects, radioactive iodine from nuclear industry accidents, and low-dose natural uranium. Meanwhile, we are developing methods for metabolomic analyses (LC-MS/MS) and for post-processing of metabolomics data (machine and deep learning). The work is in progress. We expect that the new metabolomics methods will become a useful tool for contamination tracking in a human population. As such, they would be helpful for population treatment, crisis management, and legal determination of individual exposure. The new metabolomics methods should also be useful for fundamental research in biology, toxicology and clinical research.