Research studies with healthy volunteers are an essential component of clinical research. Clinical research accelerates the development of disease treatments and diagnostic tools. Clinical research allows researchers to find new ways to prevent a disease, develop better tests for finding a disease, improve existing therapies, develop entirely new treatments or medical devices, and find cures. One type of clinical research is called translational research. Translational research involves biospecimen donations and seeks to apply basic or preclinical research into the lives of people and their communities to improve the health of individuals or the general public. The participation of healthy individuals in translational research is crucial for accelerating medicine and developing new therapies.
By studying samples from relatively healthy individuals, researchers can learn more about diseases and their pathology. Biospecimen samples from healthy donors provide researchers with baseline measurements that they can then compare with that of medical conditions. Healthy individuals can serve as controls in research studies pertaining to specific medical conditions.
Obtaining biospecimen samples for clinical research is a major challenge and bottleneck in developing new medical treatments. By becoming a healthy volunteer, you can help make a difference for hundreds of people living with chronic illness. Depending on the study and its specific participation criteria, healthy volunteers may be individuals diagnosed with minor conditions like atopic dermatitis or asthma. Moreover, if you are on regular treatment for a controlled condition (e.g. taking medication for hypercholesterolemia or hypertension), you may qualify as a healthy participant as well. By participating in translational research, you can help researchers uncover insights to identify and validate new biomarkers for a disease, identify how diseases progress, and develop screening tests that detect biomarkers associated with certain stages or subtypes of a disease. You have the power to make a difference for those living with disease and those of generations to come. Sign up to learn more about research studies for healthy volunteers, and one of our research coordinators will reach with more information.
By: Neelem Sheikh