New book explores foundations of salivary bioscience

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“Salivary Bioscience” reveals foundation of knowledge of a high-impact interdisciplinary field

“If ever there was a time when monitoring infectious disease exposure was a hot topic, it is now.” Referencing his colleague Chris Heaney, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor Douglas A. Granger says in a recent interview, “Before this most recent outbreak [of coronavirus] was dominating the news, our collaborative research efforts were focused on monitoring exposure to infectious diseases in population settings.”

Heaney’s research group uses saliva as a minimally invasive alternative biospecimen to blood sampling, which is why “The Utility of Antibodies in Saliva to Measure Pathogen Exposure and Infection” is Chapter 13 of “Salivary Bioscience: Foundations of Interdisciplinary Saliva Research and Applications,” which was edited by Granger and Marcus K. Taylor, a UCI faculty affiliate and American College of Sports Medicine Fellow. 

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Salivary total Immunoglobulin G as a surrogate marker of oral immune activity in salivary bioscience research

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Background: The integration of salivary biomeasures in biobehavioral, psychophysiological, and clinical research has greatly expanded our ability to study the biopsychosocial processes underlying health. Much of this research, however, has failed to adequately assess and adjust for the impact of oral immune activity on salivary biomeasure concentrations and associations with serum levels. Aiming to improve the validity and reliability of salivary biomeasure data, we examine salivary total Immunoglobulin G (IgG) as a potential surrogate marker of oral inflammation and immune activity. During a single study visit in Baltimore, Maryland, healthy young adult participants provided matched blood and saliva samples (N=99; age 18–37 years, 42% female) and completed an oral health questionnaire. Biospecimens were assayed for total IgG and immune markers related to inflammation (cytokines), blood in saliva (transferrin), and tissue remodeling (matrix metalloproteinase-8). Total IgG (μg/mL) concentrations were higher in serum than saliva. Salivary total IgG was associated with some self-reported oral health measures, and strongly positively associated with all salivary immune markers. Controlling for salivary total IgG may be a feasible, affordable approach to adjusting salivary biomeasure findings for the influence of the oral immune environment when it is not possible or practical to obtain clinical oral health data.

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Salivary Bioscience PhD Scholarship Opportunity at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

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A unique opportunity for PhD study at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, has become available. The UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarship Scheme aims to attract the best and brightest people into strategic research areas and provide them with an enhanced culture of research excellence, mentoring, career development, leadership and community, with:

*   $40,000 stipend per annum, for 4 years

*   4 years of funding to complete PhD at UNSW

*   Travel/support package of up to $10k per annum to support international relocation costs, career development activities

*   Open to domestic and international candidates

Exceptional students interested in PhD study focused on salivary biomarkers associated with callous-unemotional traits, psychopathology and aggression can apply here: https://www.2025.unsw.edu.au/apply/scientia-phd-scholarships/salivary-hormones-risk-and-resiliency-factors-mental-illness within the Parent-Child Research Clinic that provides evidence-based assessment and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) intervention to children with conduct problems.

The preferred higher-degree research (HDR) candidate will have exceptional critical thinking, written/oral communication, and statistical skills. Candidates with prior experience in saliva collection, extraction, and analysis are preferred. Candidates who have experience in conducting research with children and/or clinical populations are highly encouraged to apply.

Applications open May 28 2018 and deadlines are:

July 20 2018 to contact supervisors re: support

Sep 3 2018 to submit online application

Offers will be made to successful candidates from November 5 2018 on.

For more information about the UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarship Program see Frequently Asked Questions. Interested candidates please contact Associate Professor Eva Kimonis with a copy of your CV, transcript, and writing sample.

Call for Papers on Salivary Bioscience in Behavioral Medicine

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE

Letter of Intent Deadline: November 15, 2018

Facilitated by advances in salivary bioscience, great strides over the past several decades have been made in understanding how psychological and social factors “get under the skin.” Research utilizing salivary markers of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, sympathetic nervous system activation, as well as other neuroendocrine and immune processes has greatly contributed to research in behavioral medicine. This has included more precise identification of the biological pathways by which such factors influence health and disease. Behavioral medicine research increasingly integrates advanced clinical and laboratory assessments of relevant immune system and neuroendocrine markers in saliva to identify mechanisms, stress processes, and evaluate the impact of clinical intervention on physiological systems. This special call aims to highlight novel contributions of salivary bioscience to behavioral medicine with emphasis on research relevant to chronic management, the influence of psychological and social factors on disease processes and understanding stress processes. This can include observational, experimental, and intervention research. In fact, papers that document how changes in salivary levels of health-relevant biomarkers in response to behavioral interventions contribute to intervention efficacy are encouraged. Research that bridges the intersections of behavioral medicine and other areas of research (e.g., neuroscience, medical practice, nursing, public health, health psychology) are likely to make a strong contribution.

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Seminar Event: Ecology becomes biology: A population health perspective on self-regulation and the foundations of health disparities

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Sara B Johnson PhDWednesday, September 21, 2016
12 PM – 1:15 PM
Room 2086 AIRB

 

Speaker: Sara B Johnson, Ph.D., MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Public Health, Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine & Public Health; Director, Rales Center for the Integration of Health & Education

Abstract:
This talk will focus on how the social environment shapes the basic building blocks of self-regulatory development (cognitive, emotional, behavioral, physiological) in the first two decades of life, and the implications of this knowledge for efforts to reduce child and health and educational disparities.

Biography:
Dr. Sara B Johnson Ph.D., MPH is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine & Public Health. Dr. Johnson is also Director of General Academic Pediatrics Fellowship and Director of the Rales Center for the Integration of Health & Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Health Policy & Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene & Public Health. Dr. Johnson’s research aims to integrate developmental biology and sociology to explain population- level health disparities. She has spent more than 10 years to understand the complex mechanisms through which early life environments, particularly adverse environments, shape health, development, and learning, with implications for health and achievement across the life course. Her interdisciplinary research has focused on two related areas: (1) adolescent brain development and health behavior; and (2) the impact of stress and adversity on child health and development. Her research has involved substantial use of salivary biomarkers to index individuals’ response to environmental stimuli.

UCI School of Social Ecology
Social Ecology I
Irvine, CA 92697-7050
www.uci.edu
www.socialecology.uci.edu

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