Saliva microsampling,
no needle, just spit.

For the free-fraction steroid hormones, cortisol and the androgens above all, saliva is often the preferred matrix: it reflects the biologically active, unbound hormone and allows non-invasive, multi-point daily sampling a venous draw cannot match. Estradiol and progesterone are not reliably quantified in saliva, and each analyte is validated in saliva before it is reported.

Germline DNA for genotyping, pharmacogenomics and sequencing; the free steroid hormones, salivary cortisol and cortisone, testosterone, androstenedione and DHEA; viral and bacterial nucleic acid and antibodies where the assay is validated for oral fluid; and the oral microbiome under a fixed collection protocol, all from an at-home or point-of-care collection.

In paired samples, genotypes from stabilised saliva agreed with blood at 99.996%, and hereditary-cancer sequencing on saliva reached 98% variant concordance. Saliva also carries bacterial DNA, so a laboratory checks human-DNA content before an array, and a few percent of samples in a large elderly cohort fell below the yield threshold, the case for a repeat collection.

ORAgene for a full spit sample and ORAcollect for assisted collection by sponge, both made by DNA Genotek, both stabilising DNA at the moment of collection. Humans Nexus curates and supplies them and assembles the regulated kit around them.

For DNA, the stabilising buffer released when the cap closes keeps the sample intact at room temperature, for years by the maker’s figure, so it ships without a cold chain. Hormone samples are collected at set times and, where the panel requires it, carry a temperature trace to the laboratory.

The patient, at home, guided step by step in Flow, or a clinician at the point of care; no phlebotomist and no clinic visit.

Yes. ORAcollect’s sponge collects from children and infants who cannot spit on cue, at home under a parent’s supervision or at the point of care, with no needle involved. Pediatric microsampling →

For screening and for diurnal profiling, often: late-night salivary cortisol is a first-line screen for Cushing syndrome, and in adults a stimulated salivary cortisol measured by LC-MS/MS reaches 89% diagnostic accuracy for adrenal insufficiency. It does not replace serum cortisol in the low-dose stimulation test in children, and a single elevated value confirms nothing on its own.