Clinical research is for all of us. It asks the most important health questions that you or someone you know might face and seeks to answer them so that new treatments can be created. It wouldn’t be possible without people like you taking part in research or helping to create research.
If you are interested in taking part in a research study, you can ask your doctor or nurse if they know of any studies that you may be suitable for.
Another way is to visit the NIHR Be Part of Research website, which is dedicated to help you find out about health and social care research taking place in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Often people running clinical trials (research), look for people living with a particular health condition. But others may be seeking people who care for someone with a long-term illness, or people who do not have a condition (sometimes called ‘healthy volunteers’).
Everyone can make a difference, whatever their circumstances.
If more people take part in research, we can make faster improvements to people’s health and care. There are many reasons why people choose to participate in research:
As well as patients, many of our clinical research trials and studies aim to involve ‘healthy volunteers’ – people who are interested in contributing towards research but are generally healthy or do not have the condition or disease being investigated.
Healthy volunteers help researchers better understand a variety of health conditions as their information can be compared with people who have a specific disease or condition.
We have opportunities for healthy volunteers to participate in healthy metabolic measurement studies.
If you would like to find out more, please get in touch Email Us or telephone 01223 596077
If you’re over 17 years old- CRF 149, Patient Information Sheet
If you are age 6-16 years old- Patient Information Sheet 6-10 years
The VAMP Panel is a recallable panel of healthy volunteers (aged 18 years and over) and was established to set up a quality-controlled supply of human biological samples to researchers undertaking basic science experiments. Joining the VAMP Panel means you are willing to provide fresh biological samples such as blood, urine and saliva, These will be used by researchers associated with the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
If you would like more information or would like to take part, please contact us.
Research Tissue Bank Additional Information for Volunteers
The VAMP research study is classed as a research tissue bank. Samples of blood, urine or saliva are requested by investigators aligned to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (NHS, academic, and/or industry). All requests have to be approved by the Cambridge Clinical Research Centre (CCRC) Scientific Advisory Board. No fresh samples are stored. They are processed by the CCRC team and the anonymous samples are given to the investigators as described in the patient information sheet. As a research tissue bank under the Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) Human Tissue Licence, we are audited regularly by the CUH Human Tissue Licence department to make sure that we are complying with the law around human tissue. Any studies extracting DNA will be discussed with participants before any samples are taken. A participant has the right to refuse to give a sample and can withdraw from the VAMP panel at any point.
Email: cuh.crfvampvolunteer@nhs.net for more information.
Research Tissue Bank Additional Information for Researchers
The VAMP research study gives investigators the opportunity to access anonymised biological samples such as blood, urine and saliva. To apply to use these samples in your research you must complete the VAMP Proforma and apply to access the tissue bank via our Cambridge Clinical Research Centre (CCRC) Scientific Advisory Board. Applications must include the study protocol and be accompanied by all relevant approvals (e.g. ethic commitee, MHRA and local R&D confirmation of capacity and capability). To be eligible for approval to receive human tissue from the CCRC for a specific study, you would need to refer to the VAMP tissue bank within your IRAS application forms and have received ethical approval. You may also be eligible to receive tissue from us if you hold a Human Tissue Act licence coverig the handling and processing of that sample. If your department lies outside of Cambridge University Hospitals or Cambridge University, you will need a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) with the CCRC. Although the CCRC lies within the CUH Human Tissue Licence, we do not store processed samples for more than 7 days and there may be costs incurred for specific sample processing.
Email: Dr Laura Watson if you have any questions.
Participating in research doesn’t always mean taking part in a clinical trial. You may want to help us to improve our clinical research processes, or work with us to ensure that our research participants have the best experience. We need your help to make sure that our research trials and studies provide maximum benefit to people’s health.
Cambridge Clinical Research Facility (CRF) is the largest, single site NIHR CRF, in the heart of Cambridge Biomedical Campus. It is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe.
