COVHIC003: Controlled Human Infection Study

Healthy Volunteers Needed for Coronavirus Challenge Study

We are looking for healthy volunteers aged 18–50 years old to take part in a new Coronavirus Controlled Human Infection Study.

The study involves a pre-screening visit, a screening visit, an up to 13-day quarantine stay during which you will be deliberately infected with the COVID-19 virus and carefully monitored until discharge, followed by four follow-up visits over the course of 6 months.

If you are eligible to take part, you will be paid up to £3,935 for time and inconvenience.

The COVHIC003 study is part of a global consortium project called The Mucosal Immunity in Human Coronavirus Challenge (MUSICC). It is led by Imperial College London and co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), laying the crucial groundwork needed to understand the role of immunity in the respiratory tract and develop the next generation of vaccines.

As part of the MUSICC project, Imperial, in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, is conducting a new controlled human infection study (also known as a human challenge study) with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

For more information on MUSICC, please visit www.musicc.org.

What does the study involve?

The study will consist of three phases: a Screening phase, a Quarantine phase, and a Follow-up phase.

1. Screening Phase

To begin with, researchers will conduct an initial pre-screening visit to look at your antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. For this study, in order for us to meet our study aim and achieve infections in at least half of our participants, your antibodies need to be below a certain threshold. This is because we know that those with much higher antibodies are very unlikely to become infected. Only around 20% of the participants who come to pre-screening will have low enough antibodies to progress further.

If you meet the antibody level criteria, you will be invited to a screening visit. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the study in full with the research team and have their questions answered before signing a consent form. The study team will then perform a number of screening eligibility assessments to check if you meet the eligibility criteria for the study.

2. Quarantine Phase

If eligible after screening, you may then be invited to the quarantine phase of the study. The quarantine phase will take place in a dedicated quarantine unit in London or Oxford so the virus cannot be passed on to people outside the study. Participants will be admitted to the quarantine unit two days prior to being deliberately exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will have to stay in their allocated quarantine room for 11–13 days (in total) for observation, as well as sample and data collection for research and safety monitoring. The duration of stay will depend on whether participants become infected with SARS-CoV-2, in which case they will stay for 10 days after exposure, or if they remain uninfected.

3. Follow-up Phase

After discharge from quarantine, participants will attend four scheduled follow-up visits on Day 14, Day 28, Day 90, and Day 180 at one of the study sites.

If you are interested in finding out more, please read the full study information sheet (PDF).

If you are interested please fill out the pre screening questionnaire at: https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8cCAZzwLcqyLAhg