Salivary Bioscience Training Agenda
UNC June 15-16/17, 2015
Monday, June 15
UNC Chapel Hill
Carrington Hall
Room L700/Room 10
8:00 am On Site Arrival/Continental Breakfast
Welcome and introductions
8:30 am Sign in and Folder-Handouts
The “Big” picture and spit camp agenda
9:00 am Oral Fluids as Biological Specimens
Composition, sources of oral fluids and pathways of saliva biomarkers
Saliva Collection Techniques: Consideration, Dos and Don’ts
Collection Exercise
Sample Handling and Preparation
10:00 am Short Break
10:15 am Research Design & Integration into Scientific Studies --
Salivary Cortisol
Inclusion/exclusion criteria
Medications
Sample schemes
Acute reactivity and recovery
Awakening response
Diurnal rhythm
Momentary assessments
11:15 am Measuring Saliva Analytes
Immuno and kinetic reaction assay overview
Standard curves and controls
Monitoring assay validity and reliability
12:00 pm Lunch (box lunch provided)
12:45 pm Salivary Analyte Data
Data screening and transformation
Estimated effect sizes and statistical power
When is a difference large enough to be interesting?
Controlling for sampling time of day and covariates
Analytical strategy
2:40 pm Break – End of Day One Workshop Presentation
3:00 pm Tour of the Biobehavioral Laboratory
(Starts on the ground floor room 10 and ends in room 3)
(Optional Day one participants meet for informal discussion of exemplar research papers)
Pre-Analytical Lab Practicum – Continuation for Day Two Lab Training Attendees
Biobehavioral Lab Carrington Hall – Room 10
3:10 pm Lab Safety Training
Introduction to Biobehavioral staff / in-depth tour of Biological Laboratory and equipment
Safety training for day two trainees (PPE)
3:20 pm Pipetting Basics Lesson
Discussion of proper pipetting technique and care
Demonstration of volume adjustment and pipetting with
single-channel pipettes
Brief introduction to the multi-channel electronic pipette
3:40 pm Volume Recovery Demonstration
Demonstration of how different collection devices (upon centrifugation) yield
different volumes.
Discussion about the importance of selecting a collection device that suits both
the particular research subjects and the analyte being tested.
3:50 pm Short Break (rinse mouth with water for specimen collection)
4:00 pm Specimen Collection*
Part I (In-House Collection):
A. Collection of whole saliva by passive drool into a pre-labeled 2mL cryovial.
B. Collection of saliva from three separate locations in the mouth (sublingual,
submandibular, and parotid) using SOS swabs and SST tubes.
Part II (Explain At-Home Collection):
A. Collection of saliva just before going to bed, immediately on waking, and 30
minutes post wake using SOS swabs and SST tubes. (Collect each sample
under the tongue.)
4:20 pm Pipetting Practice Lesson
Practice operating single-channel pipettes (setting volumes, pipetting techniques, and making dilutions).
5:00 pm Sample Prep and Overnight Storage
Prepare In-House Collection samples for overnight storage
5:20 pm End of Day One
Before bed Collect Saliva Sample
Tuesday, June 16/Wednesday, June 17
UNC Chapel Hill
Biobehavioral Lab
Carrington Hall – Room 10
Wake up Collect Saliva Sample
30-min post wake Collect Saliva Sample/Bring all samples with you to the lab
8:00 am On-Site Arrival/Continental Breakfast
Welcome, refreshments, and overview of the day
Analytical Lab Practicum
9:00 am Sample Preparation
Prepare samples using the centrifuge (observe proper sample arrangement into the centrifuge buckets, balancing bucket weight, and centrifuge operation).
9:15 am Side-by-Side Training in running the Cortisol assay
Review of Cortisol assay protocol
Pipette practice
Run the Cortisol assay and generate data from the plate reader
12:00 pm Break for Lunch (Box lunch provided)
12:45 pm Demonstration-Training in running the Alpha Amylase assay
Review of Alpha Amylase assay protocol
Sample dilution
Run the Alpha Amylase assay and generate data from the plate reader
3:30 pm Cortisol and Alpha Amylase Data Discussion
Review of the Cortisol and Alpha Amylase assay experience
Discussion of results and findings
Controlling for sampling time of day and covariates
4:30 pm Spit Camp Conclusion and Goodbyes
Reflection of Spit Camp experience
Question and answer session
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