Spit Camp provides an open forum environment, scientific lectures, and carefully constructed hands-on lab experiments, in which you will learn both basic and advanced strategies for incorporating saliva into your research. Gain practical knowledge/experience in salivary bioscience, while building relationships, collaborations, sharing ideas and getting valuable feedback. At Spit Camp, you will become a confident salivary bioscience researcher, capable of using saliva analysis to increase value and overall impact of your research.

Spit Camp I – Salivary Analyte Basics & Lab Training

This two-day, fee-based workshop, led by IISBR Core Faculty, was designed for faculty, post-doctoral scholars and fellows. The lecture component covers theoretical perspectives; use of oral fluid as biological specimen; practical aspects of sample handing, collection, and study design; basics of immunoassay used for assaying saliva; and strategies for writing papers, presentations, and proposals. The laboratory component includes hands-on, supervised training on sample processing, salivary immunoassay and kinetic reaction assays. Samples will be collected and assayed, then data will be generated for group discussion and analysis.

The optional third day of Spit Camp I picks up where day two ended with a detailed discussion of salivary biomarker pre-analytic data processing and cleaning procedures. Dr. Jenna Riis will lead the group in lecture and guided practice with real salivary data. Best practice recommendations for addressing issues of data reliability, missingness, and skewed distributions will be discussed. Using salivary cortisol data, Campers will learn practical skills for interpreting and examining their data, including how to compute and analyze composite measures such as area under the curve and diurnal slopes.

Workshop attendance is limited to four to six participants per camp session, as this small size is ideal for allowing in-depth, individualized discussion and instruction.