Profile photo Roel Vermeulen

Roel Vermeulen

Full Professor

Strategic program(s):

Biography

Roel Vermeulen is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Science at Utrecht University and the director of the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University and the UMC Utrecht. He holds a professor position at the Julius Center, Department Public Health Healthcare Innovation and Medical Humanities (UMC Utrecht) and a Visiting Professorship at Imperial College London, UK.

 

Research focus: environmental risk assessment

His scientific research focuses on environmental risk factors for non-communicable diseases with a strong emphasis on integrating epidemiology, high quality exposure assessment, and molecular biology into multidisciplinary investigations.

Exposome

One of his main research areas is the exploration of new methods for quantifying the external and internal exposome. The exposome concept refers to all environmental factors that we humans are exposed to on a daily basis: what we eat, the air we breathe, our social interactions and lifestyle choices such as smoking and exercising. Interacting with the genome, the exposome defines individual health at different stages throughout the life course, including foetal life. Researchers in the field of the exposome are trying to capture everything to understand which, how, in what quantities, and in what circumstances environmental drivers have an effect on our health. 

Strategic program(s):

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Research groups

Julius Center Research Program Cancer

Research aim

Our mission is to drive impactful innovation for cancer prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and care through interdisciplinary research, fostering collaboration among researchers across disciplines within the Julius Center and beyond.

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Recent publications

GPS tracking methods for spatiotemporal air pollution exposure assessment: comparison and challenges in study implementation Kalliopi Kyriakou, Benjamin Flückiger, Danielle Vienneau, Nicole Probst-Hensch, Ayoung Jeong, Medea Imboden, Aletta Karsies, Oliver Schmitz, Derek Karssenberg, Roel Vermeulen, Gerard Hoek, Kees de Hoogh
International journal of health geographics, 2025, vol. 24
Defining a long COVID ‘expotype’ within the P4O2 COVID-19 study J. C.S. Holtjer, L. Houweling, L. D. Bloemsma, M. E.B. Cornelissen, A. H. Maitland-Van der Zee, L. Portengen, S. Kakhaia, R. C.H. Vermeulen, G. S. Downward,
Environmental Research, 2025, vol. 286
Air pollution and long COVID L Houweling, J C S Holtjer, L D Bloemsma, P A de Jong, F A Mohamed Hoesein, E J Nossent, R C H Vermeulen, A H Maitland-Van der Zee, G S Downward
Environmental Research, 2025, vol. 286
Traffic-related micro- and nanoplastics in air increase total and differential white blood cell counts in healthy young adults Esther S Lenssen, Gerard Hoek, Lorenzo Scibetta, Tim L P Skrabanja, Laura Caiazzo, Nienke Vrisekoop, Marja Lamoree, Roel Vermeulen, Raymond H H Pieters
Environment International, 2025, vol. 203
Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs Shi B. Chia, Bryan J. Johnson, Junxiao Hu, Felipe Valença-Pereira, Marc Chadeau-Hyam, Fernando Guntoro, Hugh Montgomery, Meher P. Boorgula, Varsha Sreekanth, Andrew Goodspeed, Bennett Davenport, Marco De Dominici, Vadym Zaberezhnyy, Wolfgang E. Schleicher, Dexiang Gao, Andreia N. Cadar, Lucia Petriz-Otaño, Michael Papanicolaou, Afshin Beheshti, Stephen B. Baylin, Joseph W. Guarnieri, Douglas C. Wallace, James C. Costello, Jenna M. Bartley, Thomas E. Morrison, Roel Vermeulen, Julio A. Aguirre-Ghiso, Mercedes Rincon, James DeGregori
Nature, 2025, vol. 645, p.496–506
The link between prenatal exposure to a chemical mixture, cord blood hormones, and birth weight Eva Govarts, Bianca Cox, Lützen Portengen, Andrea Rodríguez-Carrillo, Madeline Carsique, Adrian Covaci, Elly Den Hond, Stefaan De Henauw, Tim Nawrot, Martine Leermakers, Lisbeth Patteet, Thomas Schettgen, Amélie Crépet, Jacob Van Klaveren, Roel Vermeulen, Greet Schoeters
Environment International, 2025, vol. 202