Vanderbilt Clinical Trials

Metabolic surgery is an emerging option to treat obesity-related metabolic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes) and prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD). Metabolic surgery can profoundly alter the gut microbiota; meanwhile, gut microbiota may affect surgical outcomes. Longitudinal studies that examined pre- to post-surgery changes in gut microbiota and its relation to cardiometabolic health after surgery are limited. Furthermore, few studies have included African Americans, a population with high rates of cardiometabolic diseases. The investigators aim to fill these research gaps by establishing a longitudinal, observational study of metabolic surgery patients and applying multi-omics to identify stool, blood, and/or tissue microbial features related to post-surgery cardiometabolic outcomes. In the current study, the investigators plan to enroll up to 300 patients who undergo metabolic surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and follow them for up to 10 years after surgery. Fasting blood and stool samples will be collected at pre-surgery and 3-month, 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year post-surgery clinical visits. Tissue samples (e.g., biopsies of the liver and adipose and remnants of the stomach) will be collected during operation. Meanwhile, participants will complete a REDCap survey at baseline and 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year post-surgery. Participants' electronic medical records will be used to obtain additional information and facilitate long-term follow-up. The investigators will evaluate pre- to post-surgery changes in the fecal microbiome and fecal and blood levels of metabolites and proteins and the associations of microbiome, metabolites, and proteins with cardiometabolic improvements after surgery. This study will advance our understanding of the role of gut microbiota in metabolic surgery, which may translate into novel approaches to identify and treat obese patients for better cardiometabolic health.

Type: Observational [Patient Registry]

Start Date: Aug 2021

open study

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the effects of an innovative intervention designed to improve math skills in first graders at risk for math disabilities. The main questions the trial aims to answer are: - Does combining a math word problem solving intervention with a working memory intervention improve math to a greater extent than the same math intervention without cognitive training? - Do the findings provide evidence for bidirectional effects on development? In other words, does working memory support math learning and does math learning support working memory development? Screening for eligibility will take place in two testing sessions. Students who meet the eligibility criteria will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1. One treatment group will receive a validated treatment for math word problem solving plus computerized working memory training. 2. Another treatment group will receive the same validated math treatment plus computerized reading instruction. 3. A control group will receive the conventional school math program, including any additional school-provided intervention. Participants in both treatment groups will receive 35 minutes of tutoring three times per week for 15 weeks. Children who are selected to participate in the study will be tested once before this project's intervention begins; twice after intervention starts; twice after intervention ends; and once near the end of second grade to see how long effects last.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Aug 2025

open study

The purpose of this study is to test the safety and effectiveness of the sequence of two investigational drugs (trastuzumab deruxtecan followed by datopotamab deruxtecan, or datopotamab deruxtecan followed by trastuzumab deruxtecan) to learn whether the treatment works in treating HER2-negative (HER2-low or HER2-0) metastatic breast cancer. The names of the study drugs involved in this study are: - Datopotamab deruxtecan (a type of antibody drug conjugate) - Trastuzumab deruxtecan (a type of antibody drug conjugate)

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2024

open study

The goal of this randomized clinical trial is to study the best treatment for open lower leg fractures to prevent infection. The main questions it aims to answer is if treating tibia fracture patients with a calcium sulfate antibiotic depot is better at preventing infection that the standard of care.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Apr 2024

open study

The goal of this work is to conduct a randomized trial evaluating the effects of a behavioral intervention to increase sleep duration and quality for adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The impact of the sleep-promoting intervention on executive function and glycemic outcomes will be assessed. We will also explore multiple components of the recently identified central nervous system glymphatic system and evaluate how these components change and impact brain integrity and function with improved sleep.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2024

open study

The PROWL registry is an open-label retrospective, multi-center, US study of the Surmodics™ Pounce™ Thrombectomy System for the non-surgical removal of emboli and thrombi in the peripheral arterial vasculature.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Apr 2023

open study

The goal of this study is to understand if SLT performed at low energy is as effective as SLT performed at standard energy, and also to see if repeating SLT at low energy once a year will prevent or delay the need for daily eye drop medications better than waiting for SLT to wear off before repeating it.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2021

open study

This phase III trial studies how well standard systemic therapy with or without definitive treatment (prostate removal surgery or radiation therapy) works in treating participants with prostate cancer that has spread to other places in the body. Addition of prostate removal surgery or radiation therapy to standard systemic therapy for prostate cancer may lower the chance of the cancer growing or spreading.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2018

open study

The research team is recruiting 900 children between the ages 5-17 with obesity from Tennessee and Louisiana. The team is assigning children and their caregivers by chance to one of five groups. In the first group, 300 children and their caregivers receive 26 hours of IBT. In the second group, 300 children and their caregivers receive 13 hours of IBT. The remaining three groups of 100 children and their caregivers receive 16, 19, or 22 hours of IBT. Children's healthcare providers, nutritionists, and social workers are providing IBT to each of the groups over six months. At the start of the study and again after one year, the research team is measuring the children's body mass index, or BMI. BMI is a measure of a person's body fat based on their height and weight. The team is also looking at the children's: - Diet - Exercise - Sleep - Media use - Quality of life

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2025

open study

This study aims to discover circulating microRNAs (associated with drug doses and levels) that can be used to characterize the overall immune state in pediatric heart transplant patients and predict patients that will go on to develop infection and rejection. MicroRNAs (miRs) are small, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression and serve as molecular biomarkers found in the circulation.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Feb 2025

open study

The VIVID study is structured in a master protocol format comprised of multiple parts that evaluate intravenous (IV) and subcutaneous (SC) VGA039 in healthy volunteers and subjects with von Willebrand Disease (VWD) and other bleeding disorders.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2023

open study

Patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have reduced health related quality of life (HRQOL) and impaired exercise capacity. Despite fourteen approved therapies, most patients die within ten years. Increasing physical activity is highly efficacious in PAH, resulting in six-minute walk distance (6MWD) and HRQOL improvement that often exceeds the effect of medications. Prior activity studies required inpatient rehabilitation, which is impractical, hard to sustain, and poorly scalable to a rare disease. The Investigators propose a randomized trial of smart texts versus usual care for 6 months. The Investigators will randomize 100 PAH patients to the mHealth intervention or usual care. The Investigators will test the effect of a text-based mHealth intervention on HRQOL in PAH using the PAH-specific emPHasis-10 questionnaire. The Investigators will also test the effect of an mHealth intervention on exercise capacity, measured by a supervised home-based 6MWD test. Finally, the Investigators will examine the effect of the intervention on time to clinical worsening (composite of PAH therapy escalation, PAH hospitalization, and death) one year after randomization.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jan 2023

open study

Ventilated pediatric patients are frequently over-sedated and the majority suffer from delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction that is an independent predictor of increased risk of dying, length of stay, and costs. Universally prescribed sedative medications-the GABA-ergic benzodiazepines-worsen this brain organ dysfunction and independently prolong duration of ventilation and ICU stay, and the available alternative sedation regimen using dexmedetomidine, an alpha-2 agonist, has been shown to be superior to benzodiazepines in adults, and may mechanistically impact outcomes through positive effects on innate immunity, bacterial clearance, apoptosis, cognition and delirium. The mini-MENDS trial will compare dexmedetomidine and midazolam, and determine the best sedative medication to reduce delirium and improve duration of ventilation, and functional, psychiatric, and cognitive recovery in our most vulnerable patients-survivors of pediatric critical illness.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: May 2021

open study

The investigational drug to be studied in this protocol, BCA101, is a first-in-class compound that targets both EGFR with TGFβ. Based on preclinical data, this bifunctional antibody may exert synergistic activity in patients with EGFR-driven tumors.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jun 2020

open study

The purpose of this observational study is to find the best measures to define how well a person with eosinophilic disorder is doing. People with EoE, EoG, EoN and EoC normally undergo endoscopy and/or colonoscopy where cells are collected for microscopic analysis. Treatments are then decided based on how the cells look. We are aiming to compare different tissue components such as inflammatory cell types with clinical symptoms. We want to see if scores on standard questionnaires can give us an idea how well the person is doing.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Jul 2015

open study

The primary objective of the Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (VADRC) is to provide local and national researchers with access to a well-characterized and diverse clinical cohort, including participant referrals, biosamples, clinical data, and neuroimaging data. The VADRC Clinical Core will create an infrastructure to support research efforts of both local and national investigator studies to develop early detection, prevention, and treatment strategies for Alzheimer's disease. The Clinical Core intends to enroll up to 1000 participants, including individuals who are cognitively unimpaired, have mild cognitive impairment, or have Alzheimer's disease. This cohort of about 1000 participants will be called the Tennessee Alzheimer's Project. Participants will be seen annually for comprehensive clinical characterization and then referred to other studies to enhance Alzheimer's disease research activities.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Oct 2021

open study

This is a Phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center, Phase II, dose escalation study to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of Ya-101 in subjects with multiple system atrophy.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Mar 2025

open study

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the ProTractX3™ DCB for the treatment of benign esophageal strictures.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Dec 2023

open study

This study will use an observational cohort to cross-sectionally and longitudinally relate vascular health to clinical, imaging, and biological markers of early Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular disease among aging adults. Adjusting for relevant clinical covariates, we will test the hypothesis that vascular health is associated with clinical, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), neuropsychological, and cerebrospinal fluid markers of early cerebrovascular and Alzheimer's disease changes (i.e., prior to the onset of significant cognitive decline or dementia). Secondarily, we will examine medical and genetic factors that might mediate associations between vascular health and brain aging, such as inflammatory processes, insulin resistance, and genetic factors (e.g., APOE, a susceptibility risk factor for dementia). Findings will advance knowledge regarding the role that vascular health plays in brain aging.

Type: Observational

Start Date: Sep 2012

open study

Among people living with HIV, heavy drinking increases the risk of heart disease and death. Studies suggest that alcohol changes the number and kind of bacteria in your gut and these changes increase the risk of heart disease and death. This randomized controlled trial will determine whether a pill containing healthy gut bacteria can increase the number good bacteria in the gut, lower levels of inflammation, and lower the risk of heart disease and death.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Sep 2023

open study

ME&MG is a standalone software (digital solution) running on patients smartphones, connected to a web portal for physicians. It is intended to be used as an unsupervised digital self-assessment tool for the monitoring of disabilities in patients living with MG. ME&MG contains digital active tests for the assessment of ptosis, breathing, dysarthria, upper- and lower-limb (arms and legs) weakness, treatment follow-up, and validated e-questionnaires related to daily activities, pain, fatigue, sleep, and depression disorders. The objectives of this study are to validate the accuracy, reliability and reproducibility of the unsupervised at-home self-assessment of symptoms on the patient's smartphone with ME&MG versus the standard in-clinic testing, as well as to evaluate the safety of the solution, its usability and satisfaction.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jan 2024

open study

This phase I/II trial tests the safety and efficacy of split-course adaptive radiation therapy in combination with immunotherapy with or without chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with stage IV lung cancer or lung cancer that that has spread to nearby tissue or lymph nodes (locally advanced). Radiation therapy is a standard cancer treatment that uses high energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Split-course adaptive radiation therapy uses patient disease response to alter the intensity of the radiation therapy. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies such as pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, cemiplimab, atezolizumab or nivolumab may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Chemotherapy drugs like carboplatin, pemetrexed, and paclitaxel work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Giving split-course adaptive radiation therapy with standard treatments like immunotherapy and chemotherapy may be more effective at treating stage IV or locally advanced lung cancer than giving them alone.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: May 2023

open study

In this study, researchers will learn more about a drug called felzartamab in people who have received a kidney transplant and later developed a condition called microvascular inflammation (MVI). MVI is a type of injury to small blood vessels in the transplanted kidney and may be a sign of rejection by the body. It can lead to serious kidney problems over time. In many cases, MVI is caused by antibodies that attack the transplanted kidney. But in some people, MVI happens without these antibodies. This type of MVI is called isolated MVI. There are currently no approved treatments for isolated MVI. The main goal of the study is to learn about the effect felzartamab has on inflammation in the transplanted kidney. The main question researchers want to answer is: • How many participants have no signs of active inflammation in the transplanted kidney after 24 weeks of treatment with felzartamab? Researchers will also study how felzartamab affects kidney function, immune activity, and overall health. They will monitor safety through kidney biopsies, lab tests, and by recording adverse events throughout the study. Adverse events are health problems that may or may not be caused by the study drug. The study will be done in 2 parts as follows: - Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either felzartamab or a placebo. A placebo looks like the study drug but contains no real medicine. - In Part A, participants will receive their assigned drug for 24 weeks. Neither the researchers nor the participants will know who is receiving felzartamab or placebo. - Part B will last another 28 weeks. All participants will receive felzartamab and both participants and researchers will know this. - All treatments will be given by intravenous (IV) infusion at the study site. - Participants will have kidney biopsies at the start of the study, at Week 24, and at Week 52 to help measure changes in inflammation. - Participants will stay in the study for about 1 year.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Jan 2026

open study

This single arm study is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of a radically different approach for an exceptionally high-risk subset of MES with widely metastatic disease (WMES). We incorporate the use of evolutionary principles that apply to species and population dynamics as related to adaptation and extinction to populations of cancer cells that similarly adapt and that we are attempting to make extinct, resulting in a cure for the patient. Such principles include an initial intense first strike to deplete the bulk of the cancer cells, followed by a series of sequential second strikes towards eliminating residual, resistant populations, followed by a prolonged period of maintenance chemotherapy to eliminate any remnant cells, using agents generally regarded to be active against newly diagnosed ES.

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Feb 2026

open study

The goal of this Phase 3, randomized study is to assess the safety, efficacy, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of oral JNT-517 in adults (18 years of age or older) with PKU. Participants will receive either JNT-517 or placebo and will be blinded to their treatment assignment. Participants will have a 2 in 3 (or approximately 67%) chance of receiving JNT-517 during the first part of the study which will last approximately six weeks. During the second part of the study every participant who continues in the study will receive one of two doses of JNT-517 for an additional 46 weeks. The study requires a screening period of up to 35 days to ensure dietary stabilization and amino acid levels required to meet study eligibility. In total, participation in the study could last for up to 400 days. Participants will: Take 75 mg JNT-517 or 150 mg JNT-517, or a placebo BID (2x per day) for approximately 365 days; Visit the clinic or have a mobile health nurse visit your home for checkups and tests; Collect urine sample at home and bring to clinic on specified days; Keep a food diary 3 days before each study visit

Type: Interventional

Start Date: Oct 2025

open study