Human challenge studies

A colourful illustration of different people standing together

Accelerating our understanding of infectious diseases

A human challenge study is a carefully managed medical research study, during which volunteers are intentionally given an infection in a safe way with healthcare support.

Human challenge studies have a unique ability to investigate and understand the onset and development of disease in a controlled environment. They allow researchers to tease out complicated interactions and point out potential targets for prevention, vaccines or treatment that cannot be seen in patients who are infected naturally.

Imperial College London has successfully led several such studies to better understand a range of infectious diseases and, in February 2021, ran the world’s first human challenge study for COVID-19.

Imperial also hosts HIC-Vac, a Wellcome-funded international network of researchers developing human infection challenge studies to accelerate the development of vaccines against pathogens of high global impact.

All human challenge studies carried out by Imperial require ethical approval from the UK Health Research Authority. Trials are designed to minimise risk to study participants, and the health and safety of participants are paramount.

Current studies

COVID-19: COVHIC002

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, a quarantine stay, 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.

If you are eligible to take part, you will be paid up to £4,470 for time and inconvenience.

Learn more

CHANTS Study

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

Learn more about the CHANTS Study

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), 3D illustration which shows two types of viral surface spikes

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV): CHIRP01

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.

Learn more

Related studies

CIVICs 20-0004 study

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.

You will be paid £30 per visit for your time and expenses.

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Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV): INFLAMMAGE

Imperial College London was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and GlaxoSmithKine (GSK) to conduct a human infection study (also known as a controlled human infection challenge study) with RSV.

Learn more about the INFLAMMAGE study

COVID-19

The COVHIC001 study set out to establish a safe and effective human challenge model for SARS-CoV-2. 36 volunteers aged 18–29 years without evidence of previous infection or vaccination were inoculated with a ‘pre-Alpha’ strain of SARS-CoV-2. The study was led by a partnership between Imperial College London, the Vaccine Taskforce and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), hVIVO (part of Open Orphan plc.), and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. The findings of the study were published in Nature Medicine in March 2022.

Learn more about the COVHIC001 study

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)

In October 2020, Imperial investigators published findings of an RSV human challenge study in the journal Science. The study aimed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of why people succumb to RSV infection and the factors behind varied immune responses. The researchers found that volunteers who succumbed to infection from RSV had more specialised white blood cells called neutrophils in their airways before exposure to the virus, compared to those who staved off infection.

Find out more about the study's findings in the official news release