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Southern Liver Health (STRIVE) Study

For Current Participants

Here are the samples we collect as part of the study:

To see some examples of how your samples are used, click each below. Note that these are some reasons why your samples are so useful to us, but we could find new ways in the future to use your samples.

Why it is important:

We can get DNA from your saliva. This will help us try to figure out if there are changes that happen in your DNA that happen because of your environment and how these impact health.

Why it is important:

Blood is the best sample we can get. From blood samples we study your DNA to try to see how your genetics interact with your environment and how that relates to health. We can also test for PFAS, metals, like cadmium, and other contaminants in your body. This can tell us about the relationship between environmental toxins and liver disease and liver cancer. We can also learn more about your general health and the health of your liver.

This is all very important for putting the whole picture together for what could be leading to increases in liver cancer, especially in minority and rural populations who have been historically understudied.

Why it is important:

From your urine, we can test for metals, PFAS, and other environmental contaminants that may have ended up in your body due to your environment.

Why it is important:

This tells us about what chemicals are in the air around you. We want to see how this could impact the progression to liver diseases and cancer. We also want to study who is most impacted by these exposures, hoping that this could influence change in the future.

Why it is important:

We can measure contaminants that are in your water and see how this impacts your liver health.

Why it is important:

This tells us about what outside contaminants make it in your house through foot traffic and wind. It also can tell us if there are chemicals in your house that make their way in your house dust and could be exposing you to environmental contaminants.

Why it is important:

The hand wipe tells us if chemicals from your home end up on your hands. We want to study how these exposures impact liver health and can vary across different areas.

Why it is important:

From your soil we can look for environmental contaminants that tell us more about your exposures from the environment around you.

Some of these samples are collected from your home so we can learn more about how the environments we live in may be impacting liver health. For these home samples, you can find videos below that give you an overview on how to collect each.

These videos will show you how to collect samples from your home

If you have any questions or concerns about sample collection, do not hesitate to reach out to the STRIVE team. We would love to help you!

Phone Number: 919-515-7639 

Email: strive_study@ncsu.edu