Associate Professor
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine

                

Research Areas:

• Stress
• Mental Health
• Pregnancy
• Women and Minorities

Research Summary:

Dr. Yim’s research aims to better understand biopsychological mechanisms linking stress and health, in particular women’s and minority health. Within this broader framework, she is particularly interested in how stress-related biological and psychosocial changes throughout pregnancy affect maternal mental health after delivery. A second line of research aims to understand how cultural differences can put individuals at risk or be protective in terms of their health.

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Assistant Professor
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine

                

Research Areas:

• Clinical Psychology
• Developmental Psychopathology
• Adolescent Development
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Early Life Stress
• Depression

Research Summary:

Dr. Kuhlman’s research focuses on how childhood adversity confers risk for poor health outcomes throughout the lifespan, with a current interest in the neurobiological processes underlying depression in adolescence.

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Assistant Professor
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine

                

Research Interests:

Dr. Zalta received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research is focused on alleviating the mental health burden of trauma by identifying etiological mechanisms that contribute to the development of trauma-related psychopathology and exploring novel preventive and treatment interventions for vulnerable populations based on this knowledge. Populations of interest include urban dwellers, veterans, and homeless youth. Risk and resilience to traumatic stress involves a complex interplay of psychological, biological, and behavioral processes; thus, Dr. Zalta aims to integrate neurobiology with behavioral science in the context of her work. ​

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Assistant Professor of Public Health
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine

                

My Lab:

• Developing Brains Laboratory

Research Areas:

• Child Development
• Mental Health
• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Research Summary:

Dr. Uban received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Uban’s research utilizes multi-modal neuroimaging and salivary biosciences to non-invasively examine brain-hormone relationships in children and adolescents. Specifically, her research focuses on the impact of prenatal exposure to alcohol on neurobiological propensity for cognitive and mental health problems in males and females, with alterations in neuroendocrine function serving as an underlying mechanism for increased vulnerability. Elucidating sex differences in the impact of prenatal teratogen exposure on brain and hormone (stress and gonadal) systems is an overarching theme of Dr. Uban’s research. She aims to improve mental health outcomes among those with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder via targeted neuroendocrine interventions.

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Associate Professor
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine

               

Research Areas:

• Cancer Survivorship
• Health Psychology
• Behavioral Medicine
• Psychoneuroimmunology

Research Summary:

Dr. Hoyt is a clinical and health psychologist. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Arizona State University and holds a Master’s degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine-Emerson College program in Health Communication. Dr. Hoyt’s research is focused on biobehavioral processes related to psychological adjustment and coping in the context of chronic disease and health-related adversity, with a particular focus on issues of cancer survivorship. He examines coping processes and other psychological factors associated with mental health, neuroendocrine and immune function, and adjustment to cancer and cancer treatment.

His work spans the translational spectrum including basic laboratory research, longitudinal observational studies, and the testing of biobehavioral clinical interventions. He has led several large studies including a trial of men with mixed cancer types examining the utility of emotion-regulating coping; an investigation of the relationships of stress and coping processes with neuroimmune and sleep-related outcomes in men with prostate cancer; and a multi-phase study of quality of life in young adults with testicular cancer. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine and serves on the editorial board of Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

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Director, Chancellor’s Professor
Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR)
University of California Irvine
dagrange@uci.edu

                 

Research Areas of Scholarly Expertise and Interest:

• Interactions between behavior, stress hormones, and immune function and their relations to developmental psychopathology
• Non-invasive measurement of endocrine, immune, and disease-related biomarkers and analytes in saliva
• Social forces as mediators and moderators of biobehavioral relationships
• The influence of context on development through biological mechanisms

Research Summary:

“The systematic integration of salivary analytes into research and diagnostics has the potential to make an important difference in people’s lives.”

Dr. Douglas A. Granger is a psychoneuroendocrinology researcher who is well known for his development of methods related to saliva collection and analysis and the theoretical and statistical integration of salivary measures into developmental research. At University of California, Irvine, he is Chancellor’s Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Social Behavior, Pediatrics, and Program in Public Health. He also holds Adjunct Faculty positions at Johns Hopkins University in the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. His studies have been instrumental in the conceptualization and analysis of biosocial relationships involving child well-being, parent-child and family relationships, as well as how these biosocial links moderate and mediate the effects of early adversity and stress on children’s adjustment. Dr. Granger is a leading expert engaged in work focused on the discovery, measurement, and application of analytes (e.g., enzymes, hormones, antibodies, chemicals, cytokines) in saliva. He has published more than 250 studies and is also a faculty scholar-entrepreneur. While at Penn State University, Dr. Granger transferred technology and founded Salimetrics LLC*, a salivary laboratory and product development company, and while at Johns Hopkins University transferred technology and founded SalivaBio LLC*, a saliva collection device company. At University of California, Irvine, he has created and serves as the Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (IISBR).

*In the interest of full disclosure, Dr. Granger is founder and Chief Scientific and Strategy Advisor of Salimetrics LLC (Carlsbad, CA) and SalivaBio LLC (Baltimore, MD), and this relationship is managed by the policies of the committees on conflict of interest at University of California, Irvine and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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