The biological assessment core is a laboratory resource dedicated to measurement of immune functions and endocrine system activity. These are seen in this center as common pathways by which behavioral phenomena contribute to illness and well-being. The inclusion of this resource core underscores the importance of integrating multiple levels of measurement in evaluating biobehavioral models of health and disease. It also reflects the integrative center plan to concentrate research activity on shared behavioral and biological pathways linking life circumstances, mood, and behavior with health and disease outcomes. The core has three stated areas of activity: 1) It provides assays of immunologic and endocrine specimens representing shared pathways examined in all studies supported by the center. 2) It provides expertise and serves as a resource for interpretation of these data and for development of new projects. 3) It provides an educational resource for investigators and trainees interested in integration of biological measures into behavioral studies and into the broad scope of mind-body investigation. In addition, the core will develop new assays for biological processes deemed important by investigators and core scientists and included in new or continuing projects. It will serve to standardize biological assessments across all projects and studies in the center. Plans are also included to take measurements of waist-hip ratio, blood pressure, and pulse as part of the proposed studies. The immune function laboratory is the Immunologic Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute under the supervision of Dr. Whiteside, and the endocrine laboratory is the Behavioral Endocrinology Laboratory under the direction of Dr. Andrew Baum.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 110 publications
