Show Notes
What can a saliva sample tell a performance team that a blood test taken a few times a season might miss?
This week, Richard Graves is joined by Marlon Millard, chemist and founder of Biolyz, to discuss how frequent biomarker testing could help teams understand what is normal for each athlete, and spot changes that deserve a closer look.
Marlon explains what saliva can and cannot reveal, why a cortisol reading needs context, and how testing trends may be more useful than reacting to a single result. They also discuss the practical challenge of turning large amounts of biochemical data into information that medical and performance staff can use alongside training load, wellness and performance measures.
The conversation looks ahead to whether these data could eventually help teams anticipate illness, poor recovery or injury risk, while being clear that reliable prediction still requires more evidence.
In this episode you will learn
Why Marlon moved from chemistry and endocrinology into athlete testing
Where saliva testing can add to, or differ from, blood testing
How frequent testing helps establish an athlete’s individual baseline
Why cortisol alone cannot explain the cause of a change
How training load and other data help make sense of biomarker results
Why one unusual reading should not trigger an immediate response
What is needed before biomarker data can support reliable predictions
About Marlon Millard
Marlon Millard is a chemist and the founder and CEO of Biolyz, a company developing saliva based biomarker testing. His background includes experimental endocrinology and non-invasive testing, followed by medicinal chemistry. He now works on applying frequent, multi-biomarker testing in elite sport.
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