Boston University - Clinical & Translational Science Institute

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a novel psychosocial intervention is effective in helping adults over 50 with serious mental illness (SMI) increase their social connections and participate in more healthy lifestyle activities. The Hopeful and Healthy Living (HHL) intervention combines social skills training and training in cognitive self-management strategies in order to help older adults build healthy lifestyle and social routines. We predict that: - Individuals who participate in the HHL intervention will improve more in perceived social support (i.e., what people get from relationships such as reliance, reassurance of worth, attachment) and loneliness at the 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-up assessments than those who receive treatment as usual (TAU). - Individuals who participate in the HHL intervention will improve more in overall psychosocial functioning at the 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-up assessments than those who receive TAU. - Individuals who participate in the HHL intervention will improve more in cognitive functioning at the 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-up assessments than those who receive TAU. - Individuals who participate in the HHL intervention will improve more in healthy behaviors (sleep, activity, diet) at the 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-up assessments than those who receive TAU. In this trial, participants will be either receive the HHL intervention or participate in their regular treatment activities (treatment as usual). HHL vs. TAU will be compared to see if there are any differences in social support, cognition, loneliness, psychosocial functioning, or healthy lifestyle activities including physical activity, sleep, and diet. Participants will be asked to complete an interview-based assessment at baseline, 4-months, 8-months, and 12-months. After completing the baseline assessment, those who are in the experimental group will participate in the 16-week long HHL group intervention.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

This study aims to check how safe and well-tolerated a second dose of RSVpreF is when given during later pregnancies, and to see how long the immunity lasts from a single dose given during a previous pregnancy by examining the blood of nonpregnant participants who had the vaccine before.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2025

open study

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if colchicine reduces levels of proteins indicating inflammation in the blood in individuals with calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) disease. The trial will also test the effect of colchicine on joint symptoms in CPPD disease. The main questions it aims to answer are: - Does colchicine reduce the level of interleukin 18 (IL-18) in the blood of individuals with CPPD disease? - Does colchicine reduce pain scores in individuals with CPPD disease? Researchers will compare colchicine once daily to a placebo (a look-alike pill that contains no drug) to see if colchicine works to treat CPPD disease. Participants will: - Take colchicine or a placebo every day for 6 months - Visit the clinic 3 times in 6 months for joint examinations, surveys, and blood tests. Each visit will last 2-3 hours. - Speak on the telephone with researchers for about 4 times over 6 months. Each phone call will last about 5 minutes.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2026

open study

This Phase III, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled treat-through study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of induction and maintenance therapy with Afimkibart (also known as RO7790121) in participants with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease (CD).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

This Phase II trial evaluates the optimization of the cytokine release syndrome (CRS) profile for glofitamab in combination with gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (Glofit-GemOx) in participants with relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The study utilizes an optimized steroid premedication regimen and monitoring schedule specifically designed to enable the administration of the treatment regimen in an outpatient setting.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

The goal of this randomized trial is to investigate if using virtual reality (VR) glasses for patients who require non-emergent oral surgery procedures under intravenous (IV) sedation improves their overall experience compared to using standard of care safety glasses. This study has two primary objectives. 1. To evaluate if VR glasses can improve patient tolerance during IV access, sedation induction, and the surgical procedure. 2. To investigate whether the use of VR glasses reduces the amount of sedation required for induction and throughout the oral surgery procedure. 80 subjects will be randomly assigned 1:1 to either wear VR glasses playing a relaxing video and audio or VR glasses that will only serve as eye protection (control group).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Nov 2025

open study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the behavior analytic intervention in reducing the number of challenging behaviors exhibited by patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) while increasing compliance with needle-related simulations and procedures. A second purpose is to assess the social validity of this study as evidenced by patient and/or caregiver acceptability. The study wil take place at Boston Medical Center (BMC). A Single Subject Design (SSD) wil be utilized as it allows for detailed, individualized assessment of how interventions affect behavior over time in this type of behavior analytic research. By focusing on each participant as an individual and having each participant act as their own control, it demonstrates clear cause-and-effect relationships, showing how behavior changes with the introduction or withdrawal of an intervention. This method is flexible, enabling ongoing adjustments to treatments based on real-time data, making it particularly useful in personalized interventions and ensuring effectiveness for patients with unique needs such as those who would be eligible to enroll and participate in this study.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2026

open study

The primary purpose of the study is to assess how well amivantamab in combination with lazertinib or in combination with chemotherapy works (antitumor activity) in participants with epidermal growth factor receptor mutated (EGFRm) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; that is one of the major types of lung cancer).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2024

open study

This study is to investigate the ability of LXE408 to clear or reduce the level of parasites in the blood of people with chronic Chagas disease. Participants must have chronic Chagas disease without severe organ dysfunction.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2025

open study

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of arlo-cel (BMS-986393) versus standard regimens in adult participants with Relapsed or Refractory and Lenalidomide-exposed Multiple Myeloma.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of elacestrant versus standard endocrine therapy in participants with node-positive, Estrogen Receptor-positive (ER+), Human Epidermal Growth Factor-2 negative (HER2-) early breast cancer with high risk of recurrence.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2024

open study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, pH and food effect, and preliminary efficacy of BMS-986470 in healthy volunteers and participants with sickle cell disease.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2024

open study

This study aims to investigate toripalimab with chemotherapy in participants with nasopharyngeal cancer.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Nov 2024

open study

To demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the 8F BASHIR™ .035 Endovascular Catheter and the 8F BASHIR™ S-B .035 Endovascular Catheter for the administration of pharmaco-mechanical catheter directed therapy using pulse sprays of r-tPA into the pulmonary arteries for the treatment of intermediate risk pulmonary embolism (PE).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2024

open study

The appropriate form and dosing of vitamin K to benefit relevant outcomes in knee osteoarthritis (OA) are not known. In intervention studies for conditions other than knee OA (e.g., prevention of cardiovascular disease), the most commonly used forms and doses include phylloquinone (vitamin K1; 1000µg or 500µg daily) or menaquinone-7 (MK-7 or vitamin K2; 300µg daily). However, whether these doses are adequate to increase vitamin K to levels that ameliorate risk of adverse OA outcomes is not known. Furthermore, although some studies suggest enhanced bioavailability of MK-7 over vitamin K1, as well as extra-hepatic effects, whether this is relevant for an older population with knee OA is not known, The overall goal of this pilot randomized clinical trial (RCT) is to test different subtypes and doses of vitamin K supplementation in older adults with knee OA and to measure changes in relevant biochemical measures.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2025

open study

The goal of this interventional study is to compare the baseline neural mechanisms and parenting in depressed and non-depressed children and to examine baseline neural mechanisms and parenting as predictors of Family-Focused Treatment for Childhood-Depression (FFT-CD) outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: - What are differences between depressed and non-depressed participants on baseline neural and parenting indicators? - Do baseline neural and parenting indicators predict response to FFT-CD? - Does change in parenting and neural functioning mediate change in depression from baseline to follow-up? Participants will: - complete baseline clinical measures - complete neuroimaging tasks via Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMR) - undergo a 12-session course of FFT-CD - complete follow up evaluations and neuroimaging

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2024

open study

The emergence of crawling and walking is significantly delayed in infants with Down syndrome (DS), but the development of independent mobility provides infants with new opportunities for exploring the environment and interacting with objects and people that are important foundations for early learning. Increasing infant mobility early in development with body weight supported harness systems may support infant exploration, communication, and social interaction. This project will set the stage for the first clinical trial of a mobility-related intervention specifically tailored for infants with DS by testing the feasibility of harness systems with infants and families and identifying measures that will serve as primary outcome variables. Upon completion of this pilot project, necessary preliminary data and experience required for an in-home, high-impact clinical trial for infants with DS will have been obtained.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jul 2024

open study

The purpose of this study is to assess if adding LY3537982 (olomorasib) in combination with standard of care anti-cancer drugs is more effective than standard of care in participants with untreated advanced NSCLC. NSCLC must have a change in a gene called KRAS G12C. Study participation, including follow-up, could last up to 3 years, depending on how you and your lung cancer are doing.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2023

open study

Vocal hyperfunction (VH) is the most commonly treated class of voice disorders by speech-language pathologists and voice therapy is the primary curative treatment. Patients and clinicians report that generalizing improved voicing into daily life is the most significant barrier to successful therapy. We will test if extending biofeedback into the patient's daily life using ambulatory voice monitoring will significantly improve generalization during therapy and if individual patient factors, like how easily they can modify their voice and engagement during therapy, moderate the effects of the biofeedback.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2024

open study

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of adjuvant autogene cevumeran plus atezolizumab and modified leucovorin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), irinotecan, and oxaliplatin (mFOLFIRINOX) versus mFOLFIRINOX alone in participants with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who have not received prior systemic anti-cancer treatment for PDAC and have no evidence of disease after surgery.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2023

open study

The purpose of this open-label, multicenter, phase IIIb, single-arm study is to characterize the efficacy and safety of the combination of ribociclib and standard adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) on invasive breast cancer-free survival (iBCFS), in a close to clinical practice patient population with HR-positive (HR+), HER2-negative (HER2-), Anatomic Stage Group III, IIB, and a subset of Stage IIA Early Breast Cancer (EBC).

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2024

open study

This phase III trial compares the effect of continuation of treatment with pembrolizumab (usual approach) to observation only at preventing cancer from coming back in patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) who achieved a pathologic complete response after preoperative chemotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab. The usual approach for patients with early-stage TNBC who receive preoperative chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab is to continue to receive pembrolizumab for up to 27 weeks after surgery. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. This trial may help researchers determine if observation is as good as receiving pembrolizumab for 27 weeks after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer patients who achieved a pathologic complete response after preoperative treatment with chemotherapy and pembrolizumab.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2023

open study

This study is designed as a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel group, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of iptacopan (LNP023) in idiopathic immune complex mediated membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2023

open study

HIV transmission remains a significant public health concern, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM). Condomless anal intercourse (CAI) continues to be the major route of transmission for MSM. Thus, to reduce the incidence of HIV, it is critical to identify how contextual risk factors influence CAI and develop behavioral strategies that modify risk factors directly or reduce their influence on behavior. This study will examine the mechanisms through which one of the central contextual risk factors, heavy drinking, influences sexual decision processes in the natural environment and test the benefit of a brief intervention designed to reduce sexual risk behavior among those who engage in heavy drinking.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Nov 2023

open study

The purpose of this clinical trial is to answer the question: can the investigators predict which adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD) will successfully respond to treatment? To answer this question, the investigators plan to recruit 190 adult participants who experience extreme forms of social anxiety to undergo brain imaging before and after 12 weeks of group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Adults in the SAD group who do not respond enough to group CBT may be offered the opportunity to complete an additional 12 weeks of individual CBT while receiving SSRI medication (sertraline, see below) for SAD. Data collected from participants who experience anxiety will be compared to a group of 50 participants with little or no social anxiety, who will serve as a comparison group.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: May 2023

open study