Exposomics aims to capture the environmental, chemical, and biological exposures that influence human health throughout life. Yet researchers still face a central challenge: identifying what people encounter, when exposure occurs, and how it affects the body.
In an interview recorded at ASMS 2026, Dr. Matthew Lewis, Vice President of Metabolomics & Lipidomics at Bruker Daltonics and Head of Markets at TOFWERK, discussed how high-resolution mass spectrometry could help close these gaps. He highlighted emerging applications that connect airborne measurements, small-molecule analysis, and health research.
Bringing GC–MS back into small-molecule discovery
Dr. Lewis described renewed interest in gas chromatography for small-molecule metabolomics, microbial metabolism, and exposomics. Many compounds linked to environmental exposure remain well suited to GC analysis, but conventional workflows can struggle to identify unknown chemistry.
Dual-ionization GC–MS systems can address this problem by collecting electron ionization and chemical ionization data within the same analysis. Electron ionization produces detailed fragmentation patterns that support spectral library matching. Chemical ionization helps preserve molecular-ion information, giving researchers greater confidence when assigning molecular formulas and annotating unfamiliar compounds.
Combining these data types can strengthen the discovery of chemicals that standard targeted methods may overlook. The same approach can support biological studies of metabolic responses and environmental monitoring of airborne pollutants.
Moving from average exposure to actionable data
Traditional exposure studies often rely on passive samplers, such as wristbands, or samples collected over several hours or days. These methods can reveal cumulative exposure, but they may not distinguish between continuous low-level contact and brief, high-concentration events.
Dr. Lewis emphasized the value of high-time-resolution measurements for resolving these patterns. Real-time or near-real-time monitoring can show when concentrations rise, how long an event lasts, and which activities or environmental conditions may have caused it.
Mobile instruments add a spatial dimension. Researchers can place systems in vehicles and map chemical signals across neighbourhoods, industrial areas, workplaces, or wildfire zones. This combination of time and location data can help identify emission sources and reveal exposure events that averaged samples may conceal.
Detecting components of the exposome that remain unmeasured
Exposomics also requires scientists to look beyond compounds included in routine monitoring programmes. Dr. Lewis points to trace airborne metals as one area where advanced mass spectrometry could reveal previously underexamined risks.
These measurements may uncover pollutants that researchers know exist but rarely track at sufficient sensitivity or frequency. The resulting evidence could guide new research priorities, strengthen environmental monitoring, and inform future regulatory decisions.
Growing public concern about indoor air quality, PFAS, wildfire smoke, and legacy contaminants has increased demand for this information. Some pollutants can persist in soil, water, and other environmental reservoirs before returning to the atmosphere through combustion or other processes.
Linking exposure sources with health outcomes
Dr. Lewis sees exposomics developing through collaboration across environmental science, epidemiology, clinical research, and metabolomics. Environmental scientists can identify exposure sources and concentrations. Epidemiologists can examine effects across populations. Clinicians can study defined patient groups, while metabolomics researchers can investigate the biological changes that follow exposure.
Connecting these disciplines creates an exposure cascade that moves from source and dose to metabolic response and health outcome. More complete chemical coverage, paired with higher temporal and spatial resolution, could help researchers understand that cascade and turn environmental measurements into evidence that supports prevention and public health.
