Exposure Effects Across the Life Course: From Models & Mechanisms to Human Populations

Overview

The symposium sets out EMBL’s vision to understand how the environment impacts human health across the life-course, focusing on bridging experimental model systems with longitudinal human population studies. The programme will showcase how AI-driven analytical methods can integrate big data across domains to characterise exposure–response relationships and explore advances in causal inference.

We encourage early career researchers to attend and present during the poster session. Participant sign up is now open.

Programme

Day 1	Monday 9th November
09:00 – 09:30	Registration
09:30 – 09:40	Opening Remarks: Human Ecosystems Co-Chairs
09:40 – 10:50	Session 1: Environmental Exposures, Genetics and Human Health – Reviewing the Evidence Panel Discussion – TBA
10:50 – 11:10	Break
11:10 – 12:30	Session 2: Exposome Impacts over the Lifetime Chair: Jamie Hackett, Mathieu Shultz Speaker 1: Wolf Reik, “tbc” Speaker 2: Cheryl Walker, “tbc” Speaker 3: Paolo Vineis, “tbc” Speaker 4: Matheiu Shultz
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14:50	Session 3: Mutations as a window into exposures Chair: Tim Coorens Speaker 1: Mike Stratton, “tbc” Speaker 2: Andrew Russel, “tbc” Speaker 3: Selected Talk Speaker 4: Selected Talk
14:50 – 16:00	Poster Session
16:00 – 17:20	Session 4: Untargeted Mass-Spectrometry to connect external exposures with internal impacts Chair: Jessica Ewald Speaker 1: Lea Maitre, “tbc” Speaker 2: Jonathon Martin, “tbc” Speaker 3: Selected Talk Platform Poster Session
TBA
Day 2	Tuesday 10th November
09:00 – 10:20	Session 5: From human cohorts to model systems: semantic alignment of phenotypes across fields using LLMs Chair Jessica Ewald, James McLaughlin Speaker 1: Anne Thessen, “tbc” Speaker 2: TBA, “tbc” Speaker 3: Aleix Puig, “tbc” Speaker 4: Selected Talk
10:20 – 11:00	Break
11:00 – 12:30	*Session 6: Dissecting GE** Speaker 1: TBA Speaker 2: TBA Speaker 3: TBA Speaker 4: Selected Talk
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch
13:30 – 14: 50	Session 7: In vitro models to understand mechanisms of environmental exposure responses Chair: Talya Dayton Speaker 1: Maja Funk, “tbc” Speaker 2: Sam Janes. “tbc” Speaker 3: Calvin Kuo, “tbc” Speaker 4: Andres Marco, “tbc”
14:50 – 15:00	Closing Remarks

Speakers

Confirmed speakers – more to be announced:

Cheryl Walker

Baylor College of Medicine

Lea Maitre

ISGlobal

Martine Vrijheid

Jonathon Martin

University of Stockholm

Paolo Vineis

Imperial College London

Anne Thessen

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Andrew Russel

Broad Institute

Mike Stratton

Wellcome Sanger Institute

Maja Funk

Helmholtz Munich

Calvin Kuo

Stanford University

Sam Janes

University College London

Information for Participants

Venue

The PRBB Auditorium, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park Building (PRBB), C/Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.

From the airport:

Josep Tarradellas Barcelona – El Prat Airport

The airport is located in El Prat de Llobregat, and has two passenger terminals (T1 and T2). For more information on how to get to each terminal, airlines, and flight status please check their website or interactive map.

Transfers to the city

The Aerobus is an express bus service that connects the airport with the city centre in 35 minutes. You can take the Aerobus outside Terminal 1 (A1 bus) and Terminal 2 (A2 bus). This service runs every day of the year with departures between 2 and 15 minutes. From the city centre, you can take the metro or bus to move around Barcelona. Tickets can be purchased on the bus or online.

The train service (R2 line) runs approximately every 30 minutes to/from Barcelona airport to/from the city. The journey takes 25 minutes. The train service operates from Terminal 2 (T2). To get from T2 to T1, use the shuttle bus service (Bus transit T1-T2). You can take the train or get off at Barcelona – Sants Estació or Barcelona (connecting with L5 and L3) – Passeig de Gracia (connecting with L4, L2 and L1). Vending machines can be found in each station for ticket purchase. For additional information, please check the national railway website (RENFE).

Taxi

You will find taxi rank outside any of the main terminal exits. Look for the sign pointing to the nearest taxi rank.

All official Barcelona taxis are black and yellow and should carry a rear blue license plate. They are required to charge you only the value on the taximeter (plus any surcharge, e.g. night rate). A taxi may be ordered by phone or found at an authorized taxi rank or flagged down in the street.

Taxi Ecologic: bookings available on the app or website, and via phone (0034 93 278 30 00)
MyTaxi: booking via app or website (registration required)
Radio Taxi: booking via phone (0034 93 303 30 33)

Public Transport

The metro network of Barcelona is very good and the trains go in a very fast pace. You do not have to worry about timetables. Almost all attractions are within walking distance of a metro or tram station. Where there are no subways, the gap was filled by tram.

Operating hours of the metro and tram:

Mondays-Thursdays: 05:00-24:00
Fridays: 05:00-02:00
Saturday to Sunday’s continuous operation.
Sunday and bank holidays: 05:00- 24:00
In the evenings, only one entrance to a metro station is often open. Outside metro times there are night buses (see below).
The L9s line (to the airport) operates daily from 5am to 12pm.

Closest stations to PRBB building:

Metro: Line 4 (yellow line), stop Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica, walk 5 minutes (400m) to PRBB Biomedical Research Park. Please note that this station is not wheelchair accessible (map)
Tram: Line T4, stop Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica, walk 5 minutes (400m) to PRBB Biomedical Research Park (map)

Buses

The operating times of the buses are different for each line. You will find a notice board with the timetable at each stop. They leave from about 5:00 clock to about 22:00 clock. Check the TMB website for detailed information.

Several buses stop near the PRBB: V27, V21, H16, 136, 47, D20, 59

Night Bus (NitBus)

Both the metro and the buses do not run all night. In Barcelona, there is a fairly dense network of night buses to get you back to your hotel all night long. Except for the line N0 all lines stop at Plaça Catalunya and can change there. The N0 line is a circular line that allows you to circle around the city center and change to the other NitBus. The night buses are operated by the private operator AMB. That is why the Barcelona Card and Hola BCN Ticket are not valid.

The N17 line goes to the airport.

The operating hours of the NitBus are also different for each line, but they run from about 22:00 to 05:00 clock.