What we offer
Our Assay Service
We are happy share our equipment and expertise, in order to measure salivary biomarkers of stress from your samples. This assay service is set up as a cost recovery center within Brandeis University, which allows us to provide assay services for non-profit and government institutions. Standard assays are salivary alpha-amylase and salivary cortisol, but we are able to assay any analyte for which a commercial ELISA, EIA, or luminescence assay is available. Please check back for more information, and contact Jutta Wolf or Nicolas Rohleder with any questions you might have!
Salivary Stress Biomarkers
Salivary cortisol and salivary amylase (sAA) can be measured from small amounts of saliva collected via all kinds of different methods (salivettes, passive drool, etc.). See below for prices, turnaround times and shipping procedures.
Other Salivary Hormones
We can measure almost any hormone from saliva, such as salivary estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, DHEA-S, melatonin, and many more. Make sure to familiarize yourself with sample collection requirements and contact us with any questions!
Blood-based biomarkers
We offer a large array of plasma/serum/culture supernatant analyses, including stress hormones (e.g. cortisol and more), gonadal and other steroids (e.g. estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, DHEA-S). Contact us for shipping instructions!
Inflammatory markers in saliva and plasma
We provide assays of inflammatory biomarkers collected in saliva, blood (plasma,serum), or cell culture supernatants. We typically measure interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1beta, IL-10 and other cytokines, as well as CRP for our customers.
Pre- and post analysis support
In contrast to commercial labs, we are more than happy to draw upon our combined expertise in stress research, psychoendocrinology and psychoneuroimmunology to provide our customers with support and advise from sample collection to statistical analysis.
Custom quotes and support letters
We are happy to work with you to provide you with individual quotations and customized letters of support for things like grant applications.
Why Choose Us
We are active researchers in the field(s) of stress research, psychoneuroendocrinology, and psychoneuroimmunology. We are in the unique position to understand a researcher's needs and assist throughout the entire research progress, from data collection to publication.
Our mission is to stimulate stress research by making available our facilities and expertise to the research community.
We work on a non-profit basis.
Quality is our main aim. As active researchers, we know that valid and reliable data is the basic requirement for all research.
More than 10 years of experience - We started our Stressmarker Assay Service in 2008. We have worked for more than 50 labs and analyze more than 30,000 samples per year.
Pricing Table
What is included in our prices?
All our prices are quoted without tax, as we are a non-profit operation.
All prices include measurement in duplicate, and all samples with insufficient duplicate quality are repeated. We also repeat all samples that are above or below the highest or lowest standard concentration, respectively; with high samples being diluted in adequate diluent until results are within the standard range. Controls are measured on each assay plate and control statistics are computed over long-term periods of several years. We participate in a worldwide quality control paradigm in which control samples from a central laboratory are measured by participating laboratories around the world every six months, and results are uploaded and compared.
Prices also include free storage of remaining volumes (max 500ul) for a year at -30C or lower. For longitudinal studies, we recommend budgeting for annual increases in prices.
$10.99/ sample
$7.99/ sample
$17.49/ sample
$16.99/ sample
$16.99/ sample
$16.99/ sample
$16.99/ sample
$24.99/ sample
$17.99/ sample
Jutta Wolf, PhD
Principal InvestigatorIn her research, Dr. Wolf aims to understand how and at what levels he endocrine system and the immune system interact during stress, how this interplay affects health outcomes, such as depression or PTSD, and which factors are moderating physiological stress effects and subsequent health outcomes. With regard to moderators, she is particularly interested in the role of emotions and body image as well as health behaviors (exercise, sleep) and subjective social status.
Nicolas Rohleder, PhD
Principal InvestigatorDr. Rohleder's main research aim is to understand how stress systems, both under acute and chronic stress, become more - or less - efficient in regulating peripheral inflammation.
Our Team
Jutta Wolf, PhD
Principal Investigator & Co-Director
Nicolas Rohleder, PhD
Principal Investigator & Co-Director
Claire Elling, MSc
Graduate StudentShipping Instructions
Sample Preparation
Most people ship samples in their original collection tubes (Salivettes or similar, or other vials). Hence, instructions below mainly refer to how to prepare those for easy processing in our lab
Although we are pretty good at interpreting an individual lab's labelling procedures, we recommend that samples receive an additional, consecutive number (starting with 1 up to the highest number of samples), that should be marked on the cap of the collection tube and/or the present label using a sharpie or similar permanent marker. This together with an excel spreadsheet (email us for a template) protects us from misinterpreting your labels and provides a means of double checking sample IDs. We will then use your spreadsheet to report results back to you.
Packaging
If you are sending in samples for cortisol and / or amylase assays, we recommend packaging deep-frozen tubes (straight from the freezer) into styrofoam boxes. That way samples will remain relatively cool, and will also be protected from any other impacts during shipping.
If you are sending samples to be assayed for other biomarkers (e.g. melatonin, DHEA, gonadal steroids, inflammatory markers, etc.) it might be necessary to use dry ice, also depending on the season and expected ambient temperatures. Please be in touch before shipping to discuss the need of dry ice.
Shipping
Both Fedex and UPS are frequently used and typically deliver packages on time to Brandeis. However, it is essential to send us tracking information before shipping, so that we can track and retrieve your package if misdelivered to a different building on campus.
Therefore please always send us the tracking number as early as possible.
Address
Please use the following address for shipping:
Nicolas Rohleder
Brandeis University
Department of Psychology
415 South St. -- Brown Bldg -- Rm 125
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
Tel. 781-736-3300
Get in touch
Phone
781-736-3319
rohleder@brandeis.edu
jmw@brandeis.edu
Address
Brandeis University
Department of Psychology
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453