Asthma Research
Although treatments are available for asthma, they are not uniformly effective, meaning that medications and combinations of medications work for some people and don't work for other people. As a result, additional research is needed to identify what contributes to the development and severity of asthma.
In addition to improving the quality of patients’ lives through the Northwestern Medicine health system, our program focuses on the advancement of asthma treatments through the study and development of new medications and procedures.
Call for Participation
Your participation in one of our studies is an important part of the success of our research program. Our research patients may benefit from participating in our studies, while also helping to improve the lives of other people with asthma.
Learn more about our studies below. Contact us for additional information or to participate in our research.
Current Studies
- Precise: We are inviting people to participate in PrecISE who: 1) are age 18 or older, 2) meet guideline criteria for severe asthma, 3) currently have uncontrolled asthma, or continue to have exacerbations (attacks), and 4) are on a stable regimen of asthma medications (controller/daily medication). This study is designed to investigate new treatments for asthma that are thought to work better in some patients than in others. The data from this research study will be used to determine which treatments work and what kind of patient benefits the most from that treatment. You will take study treatments in addition to your current (or study provided) controller medication.
- Chronicle: The purpose of this study is to collect information to help us better understand how doctors treat and manage people with severe asthma and how the health of people with severe asthma change with those treatments.
Past Studies
- Azitramba: The goal of this study is to determine whether the bacteria inside the lungs of people with asthma can be changed if they are given an antibiotic called azithromycin, and if this change is associated with an improvement in their asthma.
- SIENA: The purpose of this study is to identify the best treatment in patients with mild to moderate asthma.
- ALfA: The purpose of this study is to determine if an osteoporosis drug enhances the benefit from the most common bronchodilator medicine for asthma.
- Sanofi Asthma: The purpose of this study is to find out the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of a new study drug called dupilimab for the treatment of persistent asthma, in addition to regular asthma medications.
- Boehringer Ingelheim Asthma: The purpose of this study is to test the safety and effectiveness of the study drug called BI 655066 in adults with severe asthma, in addition to regular asthma medications.
- VIDA: This study investigated whether there was a positive effect on people’s asthma from using Vitamin D daily.
- SOYA: This study looked at whether there was a benefit to people’s asthma in using daily soy supplements in addition to regular asthma medications.
- Asthma Patient Registry: We are conducting this research study to gain a better understanding of asthma and its treatments by collecting information from a large number of patients with asthma. This registry is for the Asthma Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) network, which is sponsored by the American Lung Association.
- TRIM: The purpose of this study is to investigate how effective a medication called Roflumilast might work for people with asthma and a BMI that is greater than 30.