New Insight into Biological Monitoring: Biomarkers of Exposure, Effects, and Susceptibility

Dear Colleagues,

Biological monitoring is increasingly recognized as an essential component of exposure and risk assessment, yet its implementation across occupational, environmental, and residential contexts remains inconsistent. Variability in national regulations and the limited availability of harmonized biomonitoring datasets continue to hinder the establishment of comparable exposure limits and the identification of emerging hazards. Advances in analytical chemistry, molecular biomarkers, and integrated multi-method approaches now offer improved sensitivity and specificity, enabling more accurate characterization of chemical and physical agents, including those present in complex mixtures or novel materials.

Despite this progress, significant gaps remain in the identification of effect and susceptibility biomarkers, data integration, and the assessment of co-exposure scenarios with diverse toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic profiles. Expanding the evidence base through well-designed human, in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro studies is critical for strengthening biomonitoring frameworks and supporting science-based regulatory decisions. Also, standardization of the methods and the combined use of different biomarkers in the (risk) assessment from the exposure is crucial for establishing the early and late biomarkers of the effect, susceptibility and even the DNA damage and disease prediction.

For this Special Issue, we welcome original research and review articles that will contribute new insights into biomonitoring methodologies, biomarker development and validation, exposure assessment, and their applications in risk evaluation, together with the latest efforts in the standardization and combined use of the methods. Studies addressing established, emerging, or newly introduced agents, as well as mixtures and combined exposures, are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Mirta Milić
Prof. Dr. A. Nursen Basaran
Guest Editors

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