ISRCTN studies in the news
Alongside the Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine trials as discussed in our previous blog, there were more groundbreaking vaccine studies in the news this summer, including the world’s first vaccine designed by artificial intelligence (BBC News), which has the potential to protect against all coronaviruses including Covid variants and future potential pandemic viruses.
This Phase I study was registered with ISRCTN in 2021, recruited during the Covid pandemic and published its results in June 2026. The vaccine was delivered using the PharmaJet Tropis hand-held, spring-powered needle-free system, which could prove to be beneficial in resource-limited settings.
Another needle-free vaccine has also just entered trials for non-small cell lung cancer in the UK as reported by BBC News and registered with ISRCTN. This ‘doggybone’ personalised DNA vaccine uses cells from the patient’s own tumour to create synthetic DNA, which it is hoped will make immunotherapy more effective.
Researchers at University of Oxford have also started enrolling patients into a trial of an mRNA vaccine that aims to reduce the risk of cancer for people with Lynch syndrome (ISRCTN, BBC News).
Other cancer clinical trials making the news include a groundbreaking genomic test that could spare millions of breast cancer patients from chemotherapy (ISRCTN, The Guardian).
Outside of the world of cancer trials, a pioneering non-invasive ultrasound procedure has the potential to treat identical twins affected by twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (ISRCTN, BBC News).
Results of an early trial also suggest that the immunotherapy tocilizumab, normally used for rheumatoid arthritis, could also be used to treat depression in antidepressant-resistant patients (ISRCTN, The Guardian).
In non-pharmaceutical news, a US study reported in The Guardian found that changing from gas stoves to electric stoves can help people with poorly controlled asthma as much as some drugs.
More ISRCTN highlights
Among the studies registered at ISRCTN this summer were two UK-based large-scale behavioural studies. The BENE-FIT trial is testing whether sending support materials can encourage people to complete and return their bowel screening kits that are sent out by the NHS free bowel cancer screening programme. The PHARMAFICTION study is a survey-based study that aims to find out what adults living in the UK know, think, feel and do about misinformation and disinformation relating to medicines and the pharmaceutical industry.
AI is increasingly being used in the training of doctors and to help them make medical diagnoses and is also being increasingly used and tested in clinical studies. A recent study in Morocco looked at whether guided use of ChatGPT improves how well medical students document their clinical reasoning immediately afterwards, and looks at whether this benefit lasts 1 month later without the tool.
A study in China looked at whether different ways of assigning responsibility between doctors and AI change how accurate doctors are and how well they judge their own confidence. Another study looked at AI-assisted clinical decision-making training for pharmacology students, comparing it with a traditional curriculum.
And finally…
We have also registered a study on the effects of coffee and music on golf performance under mental fatigue, and another looking at whether savouring pleasant images increases the brain's response compared with simply looking at them.