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Review
. 2010 Feb;67(2):136-43.
doi: 10.1136/oem.2008.042788. Epub 2009 Nov 20.

Application of OMICS technologies in occupational and environmental health research; current status and projections

J Vlaanderen  1 , L E Moore, M T Smith, Q Lan, L Zhang, C F Skibola, N Rothman, R Vermeulen
Affiliations
Review

Application of OMICS technologies in occupational and environmental health research; current status and projections

J Vlaanderen et al. Occup Environ Med. 2010 Feb.

Abstract

OMICS technologies are relatively new biomarker discovery tools that can be applied to study large sets of biological molecules. Their application in human observational studies (HOS) has become feasible in recent years due to a spectacular increase in the sensitivity, resolution and throughput of OMICS-based assays. Although, the number of OMICS techniques is ever expanding, the five most developed OMICS technologies are genotyping, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics. These techniques have been applied in HOS to various extents. However, their application in occupational environmental health (OEH) research has been limited. Here, we will discuss the opportunities these new techniques provide for OEH research. In addition we will address difficulties and limitations to the interpretation of the data that is generated by OMICS technologies. To illustrate the current status of the application of OMICS in OEH research, we will provide examples of studies that used OMICS technologies to investigate human health effects of two well-known toxicants, benzene and arsenic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: MTS has received consulting and expert testimony fees from law firms representing both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving exposure to benzene.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
OMICS within the domain of OEH. Genotyping operates completely within the domain of genomics. The other omics technologies operate in the intersection between the exposome (assessment of the environment), the responsome (assessment of health effects) and the (epi)genome (assessment of individual genetic susceptibility).
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