Neuroscientist Jerrold Meyer, Psychological and Brain Sciences, is co-author of a recent paper in Endocrine: International Journal of Basic and Clinical Endocrinology that describes a promising new noninvasive method – measuring levels of the hormone cortisol in hair samples – of testing for Cushing’s syndrome, a disorder of excessive cortisol secretion. Meyer, whose lab conducted all cortisol measurements used in the study, collaborated with endocrinologists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Though other researchers have explored using cortisol in hair samples to study patients with Cushing’s syndrome, the authors believe theirs is the first study to correlate serum and urinary cortisol levels with the hair assay to validate it as a new diagnostic tool. News Office release