Posted: 9/1/2010
Salimetrics, LLC, a saliva research company, has pledged a $50,000 grant to the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research (CISBR). The new funding will assist in increasing collaboration between behavioral and biological scientists.
“Salivary research is a relatively new field, having been around for less than 20 years,” said the CISBR’s director Douglas A. Granger, PhD. “We now have a unique opportunity to merge nursing research with behavioral science and increase our knowledge of various salivary markers and what they can tell us.”
According to Granger, saliva holds the key to examining biological elements such as hormones, oral health, reproductive health, DNA, infectious disease exposure, inflammation, and more. Salivary analytics can be ideal because gathering saliva is minimally invasive; it takes little training, can be performed quickly, and is pain-free for the patient or research subject.
“The Center will increase access to tools that will train researchers in various fields how to analyze and apply salivary analytes to their work,” Granger added.
He said the funding from Salimetrics, which will begin in October with the option for a yearly renewal, will be unrestricted, allowing the CISBR flexibility to pursue ideas quickly, and ideally will open the door for further funding from other foundations and corporations.
Formerly a Professor of Biobehavioral Health and Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University, Granger is well known for his development of methods related to saliva collection and analysis, and the theoretical and statistical integration of salivary measures into emerging research areas. Granger is currently a full-time faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and serves as Senior Scientific and Strategy Advisor to Salimetrics, LLC.
Salimetrics, LLC was founded in 1998 by Granger and Eve Schwartz to develop saliva testing products and provide testing services to aid researchers in measuring stress and behavioral biomarkers such as cortisol, testosterone, DHEA, melatonin and others.