Conclusions

Our genes do not define our risk for disease on their own. The exposome is a new concept that encapsulates the environmental, nongenetic drivers of health and disease, including the range of chemicals and toxins that enter our bodies through the air, water, or food, but also our body's response to our environment, including the built environment and social circumstances, through effects as wide-ranging as inflammation, oxidative stress, infections, and gut flora.

My interviews with the following experts shed light on the extraordinary progress that scientists and entrepreneurs are making in understanding how we can influence the complex interplay between genes, our physiology (including metabolism), and response to the environment. Developments are unfolding at breakneck speed and governments, businesses, and society are struggling to keep up with how this can be harnessed for individual self-care and also wider public health benefits, including in the design...