Team:Colombia Uniandes/Implementation

Glucocorticoid detection system

The Glucocorticoid (GC) detection system can be used to detect stress in any mammal from a sample of tissue. While doing the mathematical model we wanted to establish the base line for the levels of GC that our system was going to be able detect. The idea was that this base line served for all the animal samples and can be used as a reference point of stress in all cases. Nevertheless, it was found that the stress levels of GC varies a lot depending on the animal and the tissue sample.

Determination of the stress threshold in Humans

During stressful conditions, animals encounter different physiological changes. Nowadays, hormones act as good biological markers of stress; consequently, if properly characterized, can help us to detect high levels of stress when needed. In humans, changes in plasma cortisol levels are currently linked to stressful conditions. Nevertheless as cortisol levels vary within a circadian rhythm, in order to identify whereas if someone is stressed or not, it is necessary to identify normal or base conditions for each hour of the day. This information will act as the threshold for our system.