Genetic GIScience: Toward a Place-Based Synthesis of the Genome, Exposome, and Behavome

The exposome, defined as the totality of an individual's exposures over the life course, is a seminal concept in the environmental health sciences. Although inherently geographic, the exposome as yet is unfamiliar to many geographers. This article proposes a place-based synthesis, genetic geographic information science (genetic GIScience), that is founded on the exposome, genome+, and behavome. It provides an improved understanding of human health in relation to biology (the genome+), environmental exposures (the exposome), and their social, societal, and behavioral determinants (the behavome). Genetic GIScience poses three key needs: first, a mathematical foundation for emergent theory; second, process-based models that bridge biological and geographic scales; third, biologically plausible estimates of space–time disease lags. Compartmental models are a possible solution; this article develops two models using pancreatic cancer as an exemplar. The first models carcinogenesis based on the cascade of mutat...