Biomarkers of Exposure, Effect, and Susceptibility

Environmental epidemiological research, as it incorporates the principles of toxicology, fundamentally tracks the identification of relations between previous exposures to putative causative agents and subsequent adverse biological effects in individuals and populations. This field also has direct applicability to the design, implementation, and assessment of preventive interventions. The ability to discern cause and effect are often difficult because of complexities in accurately quantifying exposure, dose and effect. Individual variation in genetic factors and effect modifiers, such as smoking, diet and socio-economic status, further confounds attempts to reveal true associations. Thus, analytic methods which more accurately and sensitively characterize exposure, dose, effects, and susceptibility are needed in research involving the broad class of environmental exposure agents.