Precision Medicine

Exposome researchers push to map environmental exposures for personalized medicine

Scientists studying the 'exposome'—the sum of environmental and lifestyle exposures a person accumulates—are developing tools to measure chemical, pollutant, dietary and infectious exposures alongside genetic data. The concept, coined by epidemiologist Christopher Wild in 2005, aims to quantify environmental risk factors with the same precision now possible for genomics. Researchers note that environmental exposures account for an estimated 70-90% of chronic disease risk.

nature.com · 2026-09-30

Study probes why 10-15% of patients don't lose weight on GLP-1 drugs

Researchers report that while most people on GLP-1 obesity drugs lose about a quarter of their body weight, 10-15% see minimal or no weight loss, according to endocrinologist Daniel Drucker of the University of Toronto. The Endocrine Society has called understanding this variation a research priority, citing early findings that biological sex, genetics and behavioral factors may all play a role, with women consistently losing more weight than men in trials and real-world data.

nature.com · 2026-09-24