Mission Statement

At SAMBA, our mission is to provide quality assessments of bone health, body composition, physical function, and their interactions in health and disease across the life course.  These data will inform strategies to predict, prevent and treat metabolic and musculoskeletal disorders in diverse populations, consistent with Stanford Medicine’s commitment to precision health.

In service of this mission, we will

  1. Innovate - Work closely with all stakeholders to develop and validate state of the art methods and demonstrate that these advances enhance the assessment of body composition, the muscle-bone unit and interventions.   
  2. Standardize – Implement and disseminate protocols derived from evidence-based methods for assessing bone health, physical function and body composition in growing and mature individuals.
  3. Educate –Develop and provide access to study implementation tools, DXA training presentations, HR-pQCT training modules and reference materials.
  4. Collaborate – Promote new collaborations and support multidisciplinary translational research within Stanford Medicine and world-wide.

 

SAMBA Facilities

The SAMBA (Stanford Assessments of Muscle and Bone across the Ages) Laboratory, under the direction of Mary Leonard, MD, MSCE is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art research center, housed within a shared research facility located at 1070 Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, CA. The center provides measurements of bone density and body composition by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), bone and muscle density, bone strength and microarchitecture by High Resolution peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (HR-pQCT),  isometric and isokinetic muscle strength and muscle power by Biodex, grip strength, physical function and frailty, and anthropometry. SAMBA also provides consultations for new studies, tools for grant and IRB applications, tools for study coordinators, and consultation/collaboration with our statistical analysts.