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Research wouldn’t take place at the Imperial CRF without people volunteering to help us – either by taking part in one of our studies or by helping us to design better research. Please see the pages below to find out more about how you can help us and others:

Currently recruiting studies

Below is a selection of the studies currently recruiting via this website at the Imperial CRF. Some are looking for healthy volunteers, and others are looking for volunteers with particular health conditions.  You can find out more about these studies and how to apply for them by clicking on the links below.

If you’d like to be the first to know about any of the healthy volunteer studies opening at the ICRF, then we recommend you join our Healthy Volunteer Database.

Currently recruiting studies

Short summary:

We are investigating whether the hormone, alpha-MSH, that we produce when we eat can be used to reduce blood sugar after a meal in people with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Full summary:

Currently recruiting only participants living with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Our team has recently shown that infusing alpha-MSH in healthy volunteers lowers their blood sugar after a meal. Our current study is determining whether alpha-MSH also has this effect in people living with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Participants will attend a screening and two study visits. At the study visits, participants will be asked to lie in bed and will receive a different infusion at each visit, either alpha-MSH or placebo. They will drink a sugary drink, and blood samples will be take at several points.

Participants will be reimbursed £100 for their time and travel costs.

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

Short summary:

We are looking for healthy, non-smoking individuals aged 18-49 years to provide a blood sample every 6 months for up to 7 years, and potentially be recruited into future influenza, SARS-CoV-2, or other respiratory infection vaccine or challenge studies. 

Full summary:

You are invited to take part in this registry if you are between the ages of 18 and 49 years and if you are willing to be contacted in the future for participation in influenza virus challenge and vaccine studies, SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) studies, and other respiratory infection studies. Investigator at Imperial will use this registry to recruit people who may fit the requirements for enrolling in new research studies at Imperial.  

To participate in this registry, you must be willing to be contacted for potential recruitment into future influenza, SARS-CoV-2, or other respiratory infection or vaccine studies. The main purpose of the registry is to establish a list of healthy volunteers who may be recruited into future challenge and vaccine studies. As part of the study, blood tests will be taken to measure your levels of immunity against different strains of influenza virus. Whether you are invited to participate in a future challenge or vaccine study will depend on your suitability, partly as a result of these tests.

The compensation we offer for this study is £30 per visit. 

 If you are interest in learning more about this registry, please email the study team: flu-rsv-study@imperial.ac.uk  

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:

Who can take part? 

Healthy adults aged between 18-30 years who have been previously vaccinated against COVID-19. 

What does the study involve? 

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 inconvenience, if eligible. 

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

If you would like to find out more about the study, please visit:  www.imperial.ac.uk/infectious-disease/research/human-challenge/covhic002 or email: challenge-trial@imperial.ac.uk  

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 researching how our ancestry influences the way our lymph nodes respond to vaccination and developing an atlas of the single cell responses

Full summary:

We are researching how our ancestry influences the way our lymph nodes respond to vaccination and developing an atlas of the single cell responses.

An atlas is a reference database formed of the results of many studies. The data will not identify you. The atlas can be used by other researchers for their research

We are working with researchers at the University of Oxford and the Uganda Virus Research Institute and inviting healthy volunteers with African or Asian ancestry to take part.

Participants must have been mostly resident in the UK for at least 5 years.

We will ask you to have a seasonal influenza (flu) vaccine and to have fine needle aspirations of lymph nodes in both armpits before and after vaccination.

Your involvement with the study would involve 5 study visits. You will be paid a contribution towards travel for the screening visit and for attending study visits should you enrol.

For more information, contact imperial.recruitment.icrf@nhs.net