Faculty Spotlight

Paul J Mills, PhD has extensive experience conducting studies that require collaboration among interdisciplinary groups of clinicians and researchers. He has expertise in psychoneuroimmune processes in wellness and in disease, with a current focus on integrative medicine.

Suzi Hong, PhD investigates how the brain and the immune system communicate through neuroendocrine pathways in health and disease. Suzi’s work, including the topics of inflammation, immunity, stress, mood, obesity and fitness/exercise, is supported by various funding agencies, including the NIH.

About the Lab

Since 1993, the UC San Diego Integrative Health and Mind-Body Biomarker Laboratory (formerly named the Clinical Research Biomarker Laboratory) has provided biomarker assay consultation, assay performance, and data processing and interpretation services to academic and industry investigators. The services that the IH-MMB Lab currently provides are for various biospecimen types from research involving human participants and will soon expand to animal studies. In particular, the IH-MMB Lab’s role is to facilitate biomarker investigations for research in integrative medicine, behavioral medicine, and brain-body connections, as well as more traditional biomedical research. Collaborative efforts to foster biomedical and clinical research is the core mission of this laboratory. The IH-MMB Lab is located on UC San Diego La Jolla and Hillcrest campuses.

Assay services provided for:

News

Working with Meso Scale Discovery (MSD), the lab recently hosted a Lunch and Learn on advanced ELISA-based biomarker analysis in different sample types, including serum, plasma and blood spots. The presentation featured data and assay options for cytokines and chemokines and other biomarkers. A copy of the presentation can be found
HERE

The lab is currently actively collaborating on several integrative health, mind-body research projects, including in heart failure, myocardial infarction, hypertension, cancer, and pain patients, and examining effects of meditation, Tai Chi, accupuncture, guided imagery, journaling, and Ayurveda. Much of this work is in collaboration with the UC San Diego Center of Excellence for Research and Training in Integrative Health. The lab is also actively supporting more traditional biomedical research projects.

The lab recently hosted several teaching activities:

In conjunction with Salimetrics, the lab hosted a successful workshop on Integrating Salivary Biology into Behavioral, Developmental, and Health Science Research, which covered the basics of the biology of oral fluids, saliva biomarkers and sample collection and storage. A copy of the workshop material can be found here.

In conjunction with Meso Scale Discovery (MSD), the lab hosted a teaching presentation on the topic of Advances in Multiplexing, which presented basics of ELISA methodology as well as advances of within-lab assay development to improve sensitivity and dynamic range. A copy of the presentation material can be found here.