Chronic diseases cause 41 million deaths each year all over the world and drive higher disability and healthcare costs. It is well known that chronic diseases are the result of a combination of genetic, environmental, behavioral, and occupational factors. Traditionally, previous studies in the occupation population mainly focused on occupational or occupationally-related diseases. But there have been large changes in working trends over the last century. Growing studies suggested occupational exposures are associated with an increased risk of common chronic diseases. However, large population-based studies still lack to comprehensively investigate the chronic disease spectrum in occupational populations. Existing studies on the associations between occupational population and chronic diseases had insufficiently explored the underlying mechanisms. Occupational populations are commonly exposed to various risk factors due to the type, duration, and environment of work, which develop a disease as a result of changes in the organs and systems. Therefore, the mechanisms of occupational exposures on the development of chronic diseases are warranted to be explored. Multi-omics study is an emerging technology that can elucidate associations between exposure and diseases based on genetic, metabolic, and other dimensional perspectives. However, there are fewer studies utilizing multi-omics techniques to explore the mechanisms of occupational exposure to chronic diseases.
In summary, this project aims to (1) comprehensively investigate the prospective associations between occupational (job category, duration and workplace, etc.) and environmental exposures and the risk of chronic diseases. (2) unravel the joint effect of genetic susceptibility with occupational and environmental exposures on chronic diseases (3) elucidate causality between occupational exposures and chronic diseases using Mendelian randomization (4) identify metabolite and protein signatures of the population with different occupational and environmental exposures, and unravel the effect of identified signatures on the development of chronic diseases. This project will provide evidence for preventing and controlling chronic diseases in occupational populations and uncover potential markers or targets for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases in occupational populations.
