ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT01386424Updated Nov 10, 2026

Screening for LID Clinical Studies Unit Healthy Volunteer Protocols

An observational study in Zika and Influenza, sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-10.

Sponsored by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) · Observational

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Jul 2011; still recruiting 15 years 3 months later.
Study type
Observational
Model
Other
Time perspective
Other
Enrollment
5,000
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Background:

  • The Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID) Clinical Studies Unit (CSU) enrolls healthy volunteers into clinical studies to study infectious diseases.
  • Viruses can be highly infectious and contagious. They cause considerable illness in the United States each year and a good example of this is influenza (the flu). The LID CSU performs clinical studies to learn about these viral infections and assist in the development of vaccines and treatments for the infections. These clinical studies include influenza "challenge studies" as well as natural history studies and phase I trials involving vaccines for viruses carried by mosquitos such as Zika or Dengue virus.
  • In influenza challenge studies studies, doctors expose a person to a flu virus. Then they study the flu through the body's natural healing process. This information will help to find better ways to prevent the flu and may also improve treatments for the flu.
  • Natural history studies and phase I trials of new vaccines are performed so the researchers can learn how some viral infections occur and if new vaccines are safe and potentially effective in preventing the infections. In some of these studies, participants experience insect bites with special clean (non-infected) insects (such as mosquitos) to better understand the role of insects in these infections.

Objectives:

- To screen healthy volunteers for future CSU studies.

Eligibility:

- Healthy people between the ages of 18 and 65

Design:

  • The 3- to 5-hour screening exam includes the following:
  • Medical history and physical exam
  • Standard blood tests including pregnancy, Hepatitis B and C, and HIV tests
  • Standard urine drug testing
  • Electrocardiogram (ECG) to test heart rhythm and function
  • Chest x-ray
  • Eligible volunteers are enrolled in the study for up to 1 year, until they take part in a CSU study or are found to be ineligible to participate.
  • Volunteers may withdraw from the study pool at any time.
Read the detailed description

The high morbidity and mortality associated with both pandemic and seasonal influenza and the anticipation for future influenza pandemics puts influenza front and center in infectious disease research. Because the natural history and pathogenesis of human influenza has not been well characterized and cannot be adequately studied in animal models or with current in vitro techniques, important questions about influenza pathogenesis can only be approached through human challenge studies.

Previous human challenge studies have addressed some aspects of the natural history by evaluating the timing of viral replication, shedding, clinical symptoms, and innate and adaptive immune responses. Although these studies have provided important information, all but one was performed prior to 1990. Without exception, these studies had limitations due to the scope of the study and/or the scientific techniques available at that time.

While initially the protocol was designed to screen participants for influenza challenge studies, we have expanded our scope of research to include emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.The primary goal of this study is to collect and store serum and RNA samples and obtain clinical and laboratory data from volunteers to determine in advance if they are potentially eligible to participate in future clinical studies. To accomplish this objective, up to 5000 participants will be enrolled in this protocol at the NIH Clinical Center clinic or day hospital in order to maintain a pool of participants who have been evaluated and can be screened for future LID Clinical Studies Unit protocols.

02

Conditions studied

  • Zika
  • Influenza

Keywords

  • Future
  • Influenza
  • Flu
  • Observation
  • Vaccine
  • Healthy Volunteer
  • HV
03

In context

Zika Virus Infection

78 studies on the registry are indexed under Zika Virus Infection; 8 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 5,000 is above the median of 600 across 31 observational studies indexed under Zika Virus Infection.

Browse Zika Virus Infection studies →

Lead sponsor

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is the lead sponsor of 2,446 studies on the registry; 179 are open to participants now.

Of its 405 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 302 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

General Population

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Greater than or equal to 18 and less than or equal to 65 years old, and have no significant health abnormalities

    1. Willing to consider taking part in a future LID Clinical Studies Unit healthy volunteer study
    2. A female participant is eligible for this study if she is any of the following:
  • Of non- (i.e., women who have had a hysterectomy or tubal ligation or are , as defined by no menses in greater than or equal to 1 year)
  • Of childbearing potential but agrees to practice effective or abstinence (from heterosexual sex) for 4 weeks prior to enrolling into a spceific study and during the study.

NOTE: Acceptable methods of contraception may include one or more of the following: 1) male partner who is sterile prior to the female participant's entry into the study and is the sole sexual partner for the female participant; 2) implants of levonorgestrel; 3) injectable progestogen;, 4) an intrauterine device with a documented failure rate of less than 1percent; 5) oral contraceptives; or 6) double barrier methods including diaphragm or condom with a spermicide.

4. Willing to have samples stored for future research

Exclusion criteria

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

  1. Self-reported history of any significant medical condition including but not limited to:

    • Chronic pulmonary disease (such as asthma, emphysema)
    • Chronic cardiovascular disease (cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, cardiac surgery, ischemic heart disease, known anatomic defects)
    • Chronic medical conditions requiring close medical follow-up or hospitalization during the past 5 years (diabetes mellitus, renal dysfunction, hemoglobinopathies)
    • or cancer
    • Neurological and neuro-developmental conditions (e.g., cerebral palsy, epilepsy, stroke, seizures)
    • Drug and/or alcohol dependency and/or abuse
  2. Any condition that, in the judgment of the Principal Investigator, is a to protocol participation or impairs the volunteer s ability to give
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(6)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Postmenopausal

Periods have stopped for good: usually no period for 12 months in a row without another medical reason, sometimes confirmed by a blood test (FSH).

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Observational model
Other
Time perspective
Other
Enrollment
5,000 participants (estimated)

Groups and cohorts

  • Healthy Volunteers

    Healthy Volunteers

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Find Healthy volunteers for research

    The primary goal of this study is to collect and store serum and RNAsamples and obtain clinical and laboratory data from volunteers todetermine in advance if they are potentially eligible to participate infuture LID Clincal Studies Unit protocols.

    Time frame: One time for a participant, 20 year open study

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
    Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States
    Recruiting
    • NIH Clinical Center Office of Patient Recruitment (OPR) · Contactccopr@nih.gov · 800-411-1222
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Carrat F, Vergu E, Ferguson NM, Lemaitre M, Cauchemez S, Leach S, Valleron AJ. Time lines of infection and disease in human influenza: a review of volunteer challenge studies. Am J Epidemiol. 2008 Apr 1;167(7):775-85. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwm375. Epub 2008 Jan 29. PubMed 18230677 ↗
  • Brown TA, Murphy BR, Radl J, Haaijman JJ, Mestecky J. Subclass distribution and molecular form of immunoglobulin A hemagglutinin antibodies in sera and nasal secretions after experimental secondary infection with influenza A virus in humans. J Clin Microbiol. 1985 Aug;22(2):259-64. doi: 10.1128/jcm.22.2.259-264.1985. PubMed 4031039 ↗
09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026

Started Jul 2011 (actual).

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Jun 30, 2011
First posted
Jul 1, 2011
StartActual
Jul 20, 2011
Last update
Nov 10, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 10, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01386424
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jul 1, 2011
Start date
Jul 20, 2011
Last update
Nov 10, 2026

Study contacts

Rani S Athota, Ph.D.
Contact
rani.athota@nih.gov
(301) 594-0803
Matthew J Memoli, M.D.
Contact
mm982v@nih.gov
(301) 496-2433
Matthew J Memoli, M.D.
principal investigator · National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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