Studies Recruiting
Murdoch Children's regularly recruits members of the community to participate in research and clinical trials. We are currently seeking participants for:
Help us study a potential treatment for irritability associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in adolescents.
Research has shown the gut bacteria of autistic children is different from non-autistic children. It is possible that certain bacteria-derived metabolites produced in the gut may reach the brain resulting in characteristics of autism.
We are researching an experimental treatment, AB-2004, which is designed to soak up these metabolites in the gut to reduce their entry into the brain via the bloodstream. This study aims to establish an effective dose that will help improve irritability and anxiety in autistic children.
Who can take part?
We are recruiting adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged between five and 17.
Get involved
If you or someone you know may be interested in taking part in our project, we would love to hear from you. You can either get in touch directly with Dr Kylie Crompton below or please fill out this questionnaire:
Find out more about the Tapestry Study.Contact us
Dr Kylie Crompton
Research Officer
Phone: +61 3 9936 6756
Email:
show email address
Are you interested in the relationship between brain function and fatigue?
We are looking for healthy adolescents to take part in the SPOT-ME study. Your contribution will help us improve our understanding of chronic fatigue syndrome so that it can be easier to diagnose and treat in the future and so that all kids can enjoy their lives to the fullest.
The SPOT-ME study aims to better understand the biology driving the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents and to find out more about how thinking and memory may be affected.
Who can take part?
- If you're aged between 12-19 years.
What's involved?
You will visit the Royal Children's Hospital for one morning to do some problem-solving activities, questionnaires, and blood and urine collection. You can also have an MRI of your brain!
Get involved
Complete your details to register your interest in the study or contact the study team directly at show email address .
Help us understand the views and knowledge of early childhood and school teachers on the developmental and educational outcomes of children born preterm
We want to understand the experience and knowledge of teachers on the developmental and schooling outcomes of children born preterm. We also want teachers’ views on whether teacher training and support are needed to assist children born preterm in classrooms. Teachers are an expert knowledge group when it comes to the development and learning needs of children and their perceptions and input are crucial.
Who can take part?
- We are inviting early childhood and school teachers who are currently employed in an Australian early learning service or school (0.4 EFT or higher) on a contract or permanent position to participate in this study.
- Adults aged 18 years and over who are able to read and write in English (either on their own or with assistance) can participate
What's involved?
- Participants will be asked to complete an anonymous, 15-minute online survey
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please register your interest below or contact the study team directly for more information: show email address .
Would you like to be part of a childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) drug trial?
We are trialling a new treatment for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). This treatment is the drug methylphenidate (MPH), commonly known as Ritalin. We want to find out whether MPH can help improve the speech and language symptoms of CAS in children aged 6-12 years.
MPH is approved as a treatment for ADHD in children. We want to find out if it is effective for children with CAS.
Who can take part?
To be eligible to participate in the trial, children must:
- have a confirmed diagnosis of CAS
- be aged 6-12 years
- be able to complete spoken tasks
- not have epilepsy, congenital heart disease, severe Tourette Syndrome or severe intellectual disability
The trial will last for 2 months. It will involve only one visit to RCH for initial health and medical screening. It will also involve four Zoom calls with the study team for speech and language assessments.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team: show email address
This trial has been approved by The Royal Children’s Hospital ethics committee (HREC 77169).
Do you and your child want to help with cardiovascular research?
If so, you may be able to help with a study looking at the cardiovascular health of children with chronic inflammatory conditions compared to healthy volunteers.
The Susceptibility to Paediatric Infection Group at the Murdoch Children's is looking for children to act as healthy controls for this study.
The CUPID study is interested in the effects of chronic inflammation in childhood on the blood vessels. We know that cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke) generally occurs in adults, however, we also know that the changes in the blood vessels that lead to cardiovascular disease can start before birth and develop slowly throughout childhood and into adulthood. This hardening of the arteries (also known as atherosclerosis) is caused by inflammation of the artery wall.
At present, very little research has been done in children to look at the association between inflammatory diseases and early atherosclerosis. We will look at blood vessel structure and function and examine the differences between children with one of these conditions compared to children without chronic inflammatory disease.
Who can take part?
Your child may be suitable if they are:
- aged 5-18 years
- healthy
What's involved?
You will be asked to attend the Murdoch Children's at The Royal Children’s Hospital for a one-off visit which will take approximately 90 minutes. During that visit, we will ask about any health problems your child and your family have had, including information relating to heart and blood vessel health.
The following assessments will then be performed:
- height and weight using special scales which also measure body fat
- blood pressure
- blood sample (anesthetic cream can be used)
- an ultrasound of the blood vessels of the neck and abdomen (tummy)
- a photograph of the retina (back of the eye)
The entire assessment will take about 90 minutes. Appointments can be scheduled to suit.
We hope that this knowledge may benefit children in the future by increasing our understanding of inflammatory disease and cardiovascular health.
Reimbursements for Royal Children's Hospital car parking or public transport costs will be provided at the time of the scheduled study visit.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Meg Kaegi
Study Coordinator
Phone: +61 3 9936 6553
Email:
show email address
Mapping the Developmental Trajectory of Attention Skill Post-Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in Childhood
The ALLaboard study is looking at cognitive outcomes following treatment for childhood cancer. The ALLaboard project is being conducted at The Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne. We are interested in looking at the development of thinking skills and behaviour in children who have completed treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
In particular, we are interested in how attention/concentration and thinking speed change over the two (2) years following treatment, and understanding how difficulties in these areas might be related to brain development and genetic vulnerabilities.
Who can take part?
- children aged 4-16 years
- children with no history of developmental neurological disorder
- children with no prematurity (less than 30 weeks gestation)
What's involved
- Participation in this study is the same for both the patient and control group, and involves the following components:
- Neuropsychological assessment: Testing of intellectual skills, processing speed, working memory, and attention skills.
- Questionnaires: Standardised measures to be completed by the child, parent/guardian, and teacher.
- Saliva sample: Collected for the purpose of genotyping (folate pathway genes only). Buccal swabs will be used to collect DNA from the cheek;
- MRI brain scan: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans (Note this is an optional part of the study, and only children aged 7 years and above are eligible for this component)
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Phone: +61 3 99 366 026
Email:
show email address
Developing new tests for fragile X: Aiming to improve outcomes for children and their families through earlier diagnosis
If you have a family history of fragile X related disorders, or if you are the parent of a child with the fragile X premutation or full mutation, or yourself have been tested and identified to have one of these results, we would like to invite you and your family members to participate in the FREE FX study.
We hope that this research will lead to earlier diagnosis and a better understanding of the needs of families with medium and large expansions in the fragile X gene. This may lead to improvements in quality of life through earlier access to intervention programs.
Who can take part?
- To take part in this study in Victoria, participants need to be under the age of 42.
- To take part in this study in New South Wales and Tasmania, participants need to be under the age of 18.
What's involved?
- Taking part in Victoria involves one visit to The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (based at The Royal Children’s Hospital).
- Taking part in New South Wales involves one visit at Hunter Genetics.
- Taking part in Tasmania involves one study visit at the clinics attached to the Royal Hobart Hospital.
During this visit we will take a blood or saliva sample for some genetic testing and conduct an assessment of your and/or your child’s behaviour, thinking and memory skills, which will involve for example being asked to solve puzzles and remember lists. The assessment will take approximately 3 hours.
We will reimburse you a reasonable amount for your visit travel costs to the site of the appointment in order to participate in this project. Alternatively, we can organize a research assistant to come to your home to do the assessment.
For the participants assessed in New South Wales and Tasmania, or for participants assessed at home, the study genetic counsellor may organize a separate time most convenient to the participants for blood or saliva samples to be collected.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Victoria and Tasmania
Ms Chriselle Hickerton; Research Genetic Counsellor
Phone: +61 3 8341 6209
Email:
show email address
Justine Elliott, Research Genetic Counsellor
Phone: +61 3 9936 6047
Email: [email protected].
New South Wales
Carolyn Rogers, Research Genetic Counsellor
Phone: +61 2 4985 3100
Email: [email protected].
Investigating multimodal treatment and physiotherapy for chronic constipation
Chronic constipation is a lifelong problem that begins in childhood and is a major problem in the general community. Chronic constipation causes faecal incontinence, recurrent faecal impaction and significant functional and emotional problems for both child and family and 30% persist into adult life.
Children with chronic constipation that fails a new treatment that relieves their debilitating symptoms. The past decade has brought significant advances in the understanding of paediatric constipation. This study will determine the efficacy of multimodal treatment; in addition, we will test a physiotherapy method (transcutaneous electrical stimulation - TES).
TES has been used successfully to treat bladder incontinence and recently constipation. Our study hypothesis is that the addition of TES to multimodal treatment will overcome constipation and allow normal function.
Who can take part?
- Children aged 4-18 years.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Research Nurse Co-coordinator
Julie Jordan-Ely
Phone: +61 03 9936 6793
Mobile: 0437 971 832
Understanding the relationship between genes and stuttering
We are conducting a project to help understand the relationship between genes and stuttering. We hope that understanding the cause of stuttering will help us develop better treatments.
Who can take part?
We are looking for children and adults aged 7 and older who have ever stuttered.
Get involved
In order to participate, we will ask you to complete the following:
- Head to the Genetics of Stuttering website and complete a short questionnaire.
- Once you have completed the survey, you will be asked to record yourself talking through your computer. This step is optional.
- If you are eligible, you will be invited to provide a saliva sample for DNA analysis. Researchers will send you a saliva collection kit together with a pre-paid return envelope.
- Identification of the genes responsible for stuttering could revolutionise future studies and treatments.
Contact us
Speech & Language research groupPhone: 1800 931 759
Email: show email address
Studying how genes may be involved in speech disorders in adults and children
The Centre of Research Excellence in Speech and Language is an international collaboration of experts in the fields of speech pathology, neurology, neuroscience, and genetics. Our CRE is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying childhood speech disorders to develop novel targeted therapies. We are currently running a project looking at the genetic causes of speech disorders.
We are recruiting children and adults with severe or unusual speech disorders such as childhood apraxia of speech.
Get involved
If you or someone you know has a severe or unusual speech disorder and may be interested in taking part in our project we would love to hear from you.
Contact us
Phone: +61 3 9936 6334
Email:
show email address
Providing opportunities for families to get involved in Neurodevelopmental research
Do you have a child with a developmental difficulty or delay? Perhaps they have received a diagnosis such as autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability, or global developmental delay?
If you or your child are interested in participating in research, you might be interested in joining our contact list in the future. The Contacts for Neurodevelopmental Research (CONR) list will collect some information about your child and yourself so that we only send you study information that is likely to be relevant.
The overall objective of our research is to facilitate research into neurodevelopmental disorders, both for researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and to increase the potential for international collaborations on rare neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Who can take part?
Your child can be any age and you do not have to be a patient at The Royal Children's Hospital.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Dr Kylie Crompton
Research Officer
Phone: +61 39936 6756
Email:
show email address
Prevention of Eczema, Food Allergy, and Sensitisation Using a Skin Barrier Improvement Strategy
In this world-first study, we aim to see if using an emollient cream called EpiCeram™ on the skin of babies will prevent them from developing eczema and food allergy. If we can achieve this, it might reduce the risk of these children developing other allergies later on in life, such as asthma.
Who can take part?
We are looking for babies up to three weeks of age (pregnant mums can express an interest in participating) with a family history of asthma, eczema/atopic dermatitis, hay fever/allergic rhinitis, or food allergy.
What's involved?
Participation in this study involves:
- An initial assessment where you will be asked to complete two surveys and undertake a skin assessment of your baby. This will be located at either the Royal Women's Hospital, Frances Perry, or the Mercy - or at the Royal Children's Hospital if you have left the hospital or given birth at another hospital.
- Completing 4 online surveys, over the 12-month study period.
- Completing a short weekly online diary card, over the 12-month study period.
- Bringing your baby to the RCH for two visits (at 6 weeks and 12 months) where he/she will have pain-free skin assessments.
- Undertaking a skin prick test at 12 months to find out if your baby has a sensitivity to common substances (dust, cat hair, ryegrass, milk protein, shellfish, and peanuts). Children who are sensitised to certain foods during this testing will be offered an appointment to undergo a food challenge to determine if they are allergic to those foods.
- Optional blood prick, oral microbiome, skin, and breast milk samples.
Get involved
If you would like to find out more about the study, please contact the study team below.
Contact us
Email: [email protected]]
Phone: 1800 037 021
Help us find out why food allergies are on the rise
There has been an increase in food allergy in recent years. The cause of this is unknown; however, the number of people experiencing allergic reactions has significantly increased. The aims of this study are to see the relationship between food allergy, vitamin D, and immune function in infants.
Who can take part?
Mothers with infants:
- aged 6-8 weeks
- planning to be primarily breastfed until 6 months of age (not exclusively bottle-fed)
- living in Greater Melbourne, Victoria
Get involved
For more information see the VITALITY trial.