Meet the team working in EXPLAIN-IT and learn more about the different areas of work.
If you would like to join our team, please get in touch.
The EXPLAIN-IT core group consists of four chairs, work package leads and co-leads and representatives of the European Respiratory Society’s Translational Sciences working group and the Clinical Research Collaboration (CRC) working group.
Leads: Agnes Boots, Erol Gaillard, Ane Johannessen, and Helen Parks
This work package ensures smooth coordination across all EXPLAIN-IT activities. The core team supports each work package, monitors progress, and facilitates regular meetings to maintain communication, collaboration, and strategic planning.
Leads: Ane Johannessen and Howraman Metaran (ERS Early Career Member)
This work package provides an overview of what is currently known about the exposome and its links to chronic lung diseases. It reviews published studies, identifies research gaps, and compiles existing data to build a shared foundation for future research within EXPLAIN-IT.
Leads: Anke-Hilse Maitland van der Zee and Sara Enes Rolandsson (ERS Early Career Member)
This work package connects and integrates existing exposome-related databases and cohorts of healthy individuals, high-risk populations, and patients with CLDs. By combining and comparing these datasets, the aim is to better understand how different exposures contribute to disease development and severity.
Leads:
This work package focuses on finding biological markers that reveal how the airborne exposome affects lung health. Using data from existing studies and a multi-omics approach, researchers will investigate practical, non-invasive biomarkers that can help detect disease early and monitor its progression.
Leads: Irene Heijink and Kornel Golebski (ERS Early Career Member)
This work package investigates how inhaled environmental factors cause lung damage and contribute to chronic disease. By combining data from laboratory studies and findings from other work packages, the team explores the cellular mechanisms and pathways involved in exposome-related lung injury and repair.
Leads: Agnes Boots, Helen Parks (European Lung Foundation), and Ana Luisa Araujo Oliveira (ERS Early Career Member)
This work package ensures that patients and the public play an active role in EXPLAIN-IT. It focuses on raising awareness about how the airborne exposome affects lung health and developing educational tools to engage patients, caregivers, clinicians, and scientists in understanding and reducing these risks.
Leads: Alexander Moeller, Pippa Powell (European Lung Foundation), and Elias Seidl (ERS Early Career Member)
This work package strengthens advocacy for healthier environments by translating scientific findings into public health action. Working closely with the European Respiratory Society, European Lung Foundation, and other public health organisations, the focus will be on promoting awareness of exposome-related risks and supporting policies aimed at preventing lung disease across Europe.
