What nasty side effects did you experience in clinical trials?

Phase 1 clinical trial for skin cream designed for emergency burn care.

Half of the participants, myself not included, started slowing off sheets of skin like lepers.

For the ones affected, their bed sheets or pyjamas would pull away the top layer of their arm or leg.

We only had one limb

treated per dosage. It was pretty gruesome and the trial was cancelled after just a week.

I spent a while worrying about it happening, then I assumed I was in the control group. Turns out,

I wasn't in the control group, but what the cream was doing was making the skin ultra-sensitive

to sunlight.

Since I worked indoors and had just discovered Team Fortress 2, I didn't get enough sunlight to trigger the side effect.

Gaming saves lives, people.

CalGB-101 Did a number on my liver, but I don't have leukemia now, so I'll take it.

I didn't get paid, but I got to

live through for what many is a terminal diagnosis, so I figured that was payment enough.

I took part in a trial of a malaria vaccine. The vaccine didn't have any side effects, but I did

have to sit with a cup of mosquitoes on my arm biting me. Also, I got malaria. I got paid

£2,500, and I was well aware of the risks going in, and not only motivated by money.

Malaria is a huge deal globally, and I wanted to help fight towards its eradication. I'm not a good

enough person to say I'd have done it for free, but I also wouldn't have done it if the money was the only reward.

The money and the global need added up, if that makes sense, and it was a really interesting

process to be a part of.

As a scientist, in a field pretty far removed from medicine, physics, by the way.

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