Current Studies

The current studies at the Asthma Research Center are open for enrollment unless otherwise noted. The Asthma Research Center runs multiple studies and each study varies in duration and compensation is up to $1,735 for your time and effort.

To see if you are eligible for any of our studies, please contact us at 617-732-8201 or via e-mail at ARC@partners.org or Click HERE to complete our survey and see if you qualify to participate.


Screening for Participation in Asthma Research Studies

The purpose of the study is to identify subjects for participation in the current asthma research studies listed below and any future studies. The study visit involves gathering information about your asthma and related medical conditions.  Participants will be compensated $25-$50 for this visit. 

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Precision Interventions for Severe Asthma (PrecISE)

PrecISE is a clinical study sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to investigate several treatments for severe asthma. PrecISE will enroll 800 adults and teenagers (ages 12 years and older) with severe asthma who have symptoms that are not well-controlled on high dose of inhaled corticosteroids, including those who have frequent asthma attacks. Each person who agrees to enroll in the PrecISE study will receive several treatments for research purposes based on their type of severe asthma. Interventions are administered in a crossover manner with 16-week treatment periods followed by 8 to 16 week washout.

The goal of PrecISE is to understand how to treat different types of severe asthma, by using precision medicine. Precision medicine is an approach that targets treatments to defined subgroups of patients who share similar characteristics, for example, patients with a certain genetic variation or patients with high number of blood eosinophils.

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Investigating Dupilumab’s Effect in Asthma by genotype (IDEA)

This Phase 4 clinical research study is examining the FDA-approved drug Dupixent (Dupilimab) and biomarkers in people with moderate to severe asthma. The study aims to compare the effect that the study drug (Dupixent vs. placebo) has on asthma exacerbations. The study team is looking to understand if the underlying presence of these biomarkers in your blood might indicate a more positive response to the study drug when compared to people who do not have this biomarker present.

Participants should be prescribed Inhaled Corticosteroids (such as Flovent, Pulmicort, QVAR, Advair, or Symbicort).

Participants will have at least 9 visits over an 18-month period. The study will provide all participants with Dulera and study drug for them to self-administer at no cost. Participants will be compensated up to $870.

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Pilot for Dual Antiplatelet Therapy in COPD Study

Blood flow within the lungs may be an important contributor to lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema.  The purpose of this study is to evaluate our CT technique and our ability to measure blood flow in the lungs. Once we are certain we can measure blood flow in the lungs accurately, we will use the CT technique in studies where we test whether certain treatments can improve blood flow in the lungs in people with lung disease.
 
We are recruiting people aged 50-75 who are former smokers or never smokers. You do not need to have COPD to participate in this pilot study. Participants will come to the hospital for 1-2 visits, where they will give a blood and urine sample, have height and weight measured and if they meet criteria then a CT scan with intravenous contrast will be done.
 
Participants will be reimbursed up to $75 for their participation, in addition to being reimbursed for parking or public transportation
 
Please contact us at 617-732-8201 or via e-mail at ARC@partners.org for more information.

Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP)

In recent years scientists have learned more about the way mild-to-moderate asthma works and the reasons people get it. However, scientists are still trying to figure out what makes severe asthma different and how they can do better to treat the disease.

One reason the study of severe asthma is difficult is that there are not as many people with severe asthma. In fact they make up less than 10% of people with asthma. The Severe Asthma Research Program or SARP is a national research program created so that scientists in many locations across the country can run a single, important study, and together find enough volunteers with severe asthma to participate.

The Severe Asthma Research Program (SARP) at the BWH in Boston is looking for adults taking inhaled corticosteroids who have been told they have asthma by a doctor. The observational study involves coming to our research center 4-5 times over the course of about 3 years. Participants will take their usual asthma medications throughout, and, as with all our studies, compensation for time spent in our center is provided.

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