Currently recruiting studies

Short summary:

The study will investigate if and how alpha-MSH (a natural hormone) can reduce blood sugar levels. This could potentially lead to new treatments for type 1 diabetes.

Full summary:

Currently recruiting female participants with type 1 diabetes

Participants will be required to attend the Imperial Clinical Research Facility for screening and two 4-hour study visits. They will receive alpha MSH or placebo, have blood samples taken and two small (size of rice grain) muscle biopsies taken from your leg.  The hormone infusion is safe, with only redness of the face reported by some people.

Participants will be reimbursed £200 for their time and travel costs.

For more information, contact brett.johnson@nhs.net

Short summary:

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 18-50 years old to take part in a new non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) Human Challenge Study.

This study involves a 1-week quarantine stay at either Hammersmith Hospital or Charing Cross Hospital, where you will be given a drink containing non-typhoidal Salmonella bacteria, and 11 follow up visits over 12 months. The symptoms you are most likely to develop are diarrhoea and vomiting (gastroenteritis). Volunteers will be paid £3002 for the inconvenience, time and travel if all study visits are attended, and up to £3,237 if extra visits are needed.

Full summary:

Who can take part?

Healthy adults aged 18-50 years.

What does the study involve?

This study involves a 1-week quarantine stay at Hammersmith Hospital or Charing Cross Hospital, where you will be given a drink containing non-typhoidal Salmonella bacteria and you may develop symptoms of gastroenteritis (e.g. diarrhoea and vomiting). There are 11 follow up visits after the quarantine to attend over the course of a year.

Volunteers will be paid £3002 for the inconvenience, time and travel if all study visits are attended, and up to £3,237 if extra visits are needed.

What can I do if I’m interested in taking part?

If you would like to find out more about the study, please visit our website: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human-challenge/chants/ or email: chants@imperial.ac.uk so one of our study team can get in touch.

Short summary:

We are looking for volunteers over the age of 18 and without a formal diagnosis of an existing memory problem or medical condition that may impact memory later in life to perform an online memory test.

Full summary:

You are invited to take part in this study if you are over 18 years of age and without a formal diagnosis of an existing memory problem, or a medical condition that may have an influence on memory later in life.

‘Chemobrain’ is a common but poorly understood side effect of chemotherapy for many cancer patients. The term is used to describe a collection of signs and symptoms including difficulties with concentration, multi-tasking, recalling words/conversations and confusion. Chemobrain occurs in approximately 50% of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Whilst some patients recover, many are left with permanent memory problems affecting their quality of life. Studies of women with breast cancer have shown that chemotherapy may cause changes within the brain. However, the processes at play that are causing these changes are unclear. Breast cancer patients recruited to the Chemobrain study have been invited to complete 3-monthly online memory tests for up to 12 months. In order to quantify these cognitive changes effectively, it is very important for us to compare the scores generated by our breast cancer patients with those produced by a healthy control group.

If you were interested to participate in our CHEMOBRAIN sub-study for volunteers, we would invite you to complete a set of memory tests. These will take approximately 45-60 minutes to complete. Each test has clear instructions, with video demonstrations and practice rounds. The tests are designed to assess an array of cognitive abilities including recall, executive function, verbal fluency, memory, concentration, and global cognitive function. The tests are most compatible with a tablet or PC. Following completion of the online memory test, we may invite you to come to Hammersmith for an optional in-person memory assessment and blood sample collection. The research team will discuss all of the procedures with you and answer any questions you may have. If you are interest in learning more about this study, please contact chemobrain@imperial.ac.uk.

Short summary:

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 65 - 75 years old to take part in an RSV Challenge Study. The study involves a screening visit, a residential stay during which you will be deliberately infected with RSV and carefully monitored until discharge, followed by 3 follow-up visits over the course of 6 months. If you are eligible to take part, you will be paid up to £2,200-2,500 for time and inconvenience. 

Full summary:

 This study involves an initial screening visit which lasts approximately 2 hours. At the screening visit, the study doctor will discuss the study with you give you the opportunity to ask questions and then ask you to sign a consent form. During this visit, there will be a brief interview, medical examination, routine blood tests, urine tests, breathing tests and a chest X-ray to find out if you are suitable for the study. They will also request your medical history from your GP following the visit.

 If you are eligible following screening and agree to take part, you will then be invited to take part in the main study at a time convenient to you. You will be admitted one day prior (known as Day -1) to the Imperial Clinical Research Facility. The following day, Day 0, providing all admission procedures were fine, you will then be deliberately infected with RSV by drops in the nose. You will then remain in the residential unit for 8 days if you remain uninfected, or10 days if you become infected after being given RSV.

 Participants must stay in the research facility after being given RSV to prevent the virus from spreading to vulnerable people in the community. They will be seen by a research doctor and/or nurse daily throughout this period, during which time they will record any symptoms experienced, collect blood samples, perform breathing tests, and collect samples from the nose and throat.  After the quarantine, there is a follow up visit on Day 14, Day 28 and Day 180. After the Day 180 visit, your participation in the study will be complete.

You can also complete the pre-screening questionnaire online to find out if you might be eligible to take part. 

Alternatively, you can contact the study team directly by emailing flu-rsv-study@imperial.ac.uk

Short summary:

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 18 – 64 years old to join our registry! Suitable participants will provide a blood sample every 3 months for up to 5 years. Participants will be part of our registry and invited to join future virus challenge and vaccine studies exploring respiratory illnesses.

Full summary:

Short summary:

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged between 18-30 years to take part in a COVID-19 Human Challenge Study. This study involves an up to 2-week quarantine stay at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where you will be deliberately given SARS-CoV-2 and may develop COVID-19, and 5 follow up visits over 12 months. Volunteers will be paid up to £4,470 for their time and travel.

Full summary:

Short summary:

We are searching to understand what are the mechanisms that lead to a disorder named Parkinson’s disease, for which there is no therapy so far that could change its course. 

Full summary:

We are searching to understand the role of some of the potential mechanisms by which Parkinson’s disease develops in the hope that this could help in designing more effective therapies that could slow down the course of the disease.  

We are looking for patients with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, patients carrying mutations to gene that predispose for Parkinson’s disease, and healthy volunteers.  

This study programme is structured of two different protocols, involving a clinical visit, some scans (pictures of the brain) named PET, MRI and SPECT scans, which help understand what the function of specific molecules of the brain is, and a lumbar puncture which is optional.  

According to the study protocol, your involvement to the study would involve between four and eight visits over a time span of approximately one year. Travel and, if needed, accommodation for you and one companion will be provided, and you will be paid a contribution for attending study visits should you enrol. 

For more information, contact neuro@exeter.ac.uk 

Short summary:

We are investigating the motivational processes underlying self-harm in young people (aged 16-25). iMAGine Part 4 is a continuation of Part 3 with a specific focus on comparing non-autistic to autistic people.

Full summary:

Who can take part?

• Young people aged 16-25
• Experience of self-harm within the last year
• Both autistic and non-autistic people

What is the study about?

In iMAGine Part 3, we focused on comparing motivational differences between young people who self-harm and young people who do not have a history of mental health difficulties. iMAGine Part 4 has a specific focus on neurodiverse individuals where we are comparing the motivational processes underlying self-harm between autistic and non-autistic young people.

What does the study involve?

Participants undergo an online and telephone screening followed by an in-person visit. At the study visit, participants are asked to complete questionnaires related to their self-harm, experiences and mental health followed by 4 tasks. 3 of the tasks are computer-based and the 4th task is an imagery task where we try to modify mental images related to self-harm.

Participants will be reimbursed £50 for their time.

What can I do if I’m interested in taking part?

For more information, contact imagine@imperial.ac.uk

Or visit our:

• Website: www.imaginestudy.org
• Instagram page: @mir_imperial

Short summary:

We are looking for men or women who are currently using or previously used anabolic steroids to understand what happens to hormone levels and symptoms

Full summary:

When men or women stop taking anabolic steroids (also known as ‘steroids’) they may experience symptoms of low hormone levels. We do not know how long men and women experience these symptoms for or how severe these symptoms can be. We want to try and answer these questions which can be used to develop future treatments. 

We are looking for men and women aged 18 – 60 years old who are currently using or have used anabolic steroids within in the last 1 year. 

The study involves one appointment approximately 30 minutes long where you will complete a detailed questionnaire, have a blood test and provide a urine sample. We will provide you with a copy of your blood results after the appointment with an explanation of the results. You will be reimbursed travel expenses depending on distance travelled. 

For more information, contact anst01@ic.ac.uk