ABOVE: Volunteer Molly Perry receives an injection of malaria sporozoites from Jim Kublin at the Fred Hutch–based Seattle Malaria Clinical Trials Center as part of a challenge study.
ROBERT HOOD/FRED HUTCH
As the 2009 pandemic flu virus infected millions around the world, Matthew Memoli began planning to expose healthy volunteers to the pathogen—a proposal that met with considerable opposition. The scientific community was divided on whether the approach was ethical or even warranted.
As the director of the Clinical Studies Unit at the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Memoli recognized the value of a so-called challenge trial for flu, and there was precedent for conducting one. “Our current vaccine and most of the antivirals that we use for flu were all developed in some part because of challenge studies,” says Memoli. But at the time he was applying for regulatory approval in ...
