Recruiting Now!
We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 18 – 30 years old to take part in a new COVID-19 Human Challenge Study.
The study involves a screening visit at the CCVTM or Oxford EMCRF, a quarantine stay at Oxford EMCRF, during which you will be deliberately infected with the COVID-19 virus and carefully monitored until discharge, followed by five follow-up visits over the course of 12 months at the CCVTM or Oxford EMCRF.
If you are eligible to take part, you will be paid up to £4,500 for time and inconvenience.
Imperial College London, in collaboration with The University of Oxford, and funded by the Wellcome Trust, are conducting a new human infection study (also known as a human challenge study) with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
This new study will follow on from the first COVID-19 human infection study carried out by researchers from Imperial, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the clinical company hVIVO last year. Findings from the first study have now been peer-reviewed and published in Nature Medicine and detail the outcomes in 36 healthy, young participants with no immunity to the virus. Read the full news story on the Imperial College news site to learn more.
In this new study, young, healthy volunteers will be deliberately infected with the delta-strain of the COVID-19 virus so that researchers can learn more about the infection and test new vaccines and treatments in the future.
This study aims to recruit up to 120 volunteers who will be given the virus by drops in the nose in a safe and controlled environment. Only volunteers at the lowest risk of becoming severely unwell (young adults between 18-30 years old, who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and have no underlying health conditions) will be eligible to take part.
The study is taking place in a controlled quarantine unit at the EMCRF in Oxford, so the virus cannot be passed on to people outside the study. There are medical staff on hand all the time closely monitoring the volunteers.
To begin with, researchers will conduct an initial screening assessment to determine eligibility for the study. If eligible, volunteers will then be invited to the quarantine unit at the Oxford EMCRF. They will be given a dose of coronavirus and then monitored for a minimum of 10-14 days at the quarantine unit. Once the discharge criteria have been met, they will then leave the quarantine facility and continue in the study up to a year post inoculation and return to the the CCVTM or Oxford EMCRF for five follow up visits.
If you are interested in finding out more, please read the full study information sheet.
This study is also taking place in London. Please follow this link to be taken to their webpage and to register your interest to take part at the Imperial College London study site.
Upcoming Quarantines
Please note: if you remain uninfected, you will have the option to leave the quarantine unit at Day 10, instead of Day 14 post-challenge (4 days earlier than the discharge dates in the table above). You can decide to stay in the quarantine unit until Day 14, otherwise, you will be required to return to the Oxford EMCRF for Day 11, Day 12, Day 13 and Day 14.