Complement 2: Blood donations to develop vaccines against infection
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sourcing human blood products to support the development of new vaccines against infectious diseases
IRAS ID
127168
Contact name
Andrew Pollard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Research summary
The Oxford Vaccine Group is developing and testing vaccines against important diseases such as typhoid, meningococcal disease (a cause of meningitis) and shigella (a cause of gastrointestinal infections). Testing the immune response of volunteers to these vaccines in clinical trials requires the use of laboratory assays. One particular type of laboratory test is called the serum bactericidal activity assay, and to perform this we require a particular component of blood called complement. Complement is a collection of proteins that help antibodies kill their target bacteria more effectively. Most people have some form of protection against most bacteria already, so not everyone is a suitable blood donor for this laboratory test.
The purpose of the study is to (a) find people who have the type of Complement we can use in the laboratory research we do, and (b) are willing to give blood samples to support our work.
Once we have identified these volunteers, we would use their blood as a source of complement to enable us to perform the serum bactericidal assay.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SC/0375
Date of REC Opinion
12 Sep 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion