Committee protects student guinea pigs from 'bad' experiments
Students who want to earn extra money by volunteering for university-sponsored experiments but are afraid of turning into Mr. Hyde can rest assured that one UA group has their interests in mind.
The University of Arizona's Human Subjects Committee is mandated by the federal government to review experiments conducted on people.
"They determine if the experiment is well-designed and if the benefits outweigh the risks," said Michael Cusanovich, vice president for research. "Human subjects research is an area that involves ethical questions."
Smoking studies, sleep studies and all psychological experiments are among cases the committee reviews, and grant money to conduct such experiments is often contingent upon its approval.
John Palmer, a UA pharmacology professor, replaced professor of medicine William Denny as committee chairman in October. The committee, which has been on the UA campus since the late 1960s, meets twice a month.
"John (Palmer) was selected based on his experience and extensive background in human subjects research," Cusanovich said. "He has a long background in medical ethics."
"We are there to protect the safety of people who volunteer to do research," Palmer said. "It's important that we create an environment where human subject research can be conducted. It's how you (scientists) figure out how things affect us."
The Human Subjects Committee reviews about 30 experiment proposals a month, he said.
"We've seen a little bit short of 300 so far (this year)," Palmer said.
The committee primarily looks at the risks an experiment may pose to its subjects, Palmer said. Psychological risk resulting from studies of sexual behavior and other personal matters is also considered.
But safe experiments are not automatically approved.
"Obviously there's research done with humans that poses no risk but has no benefits," Palmer said.
The colleges of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, agriculture, psychology and nutrition all submit proposals on a regular basis.
"There is a potential to see this (a proposal) from almost any college," he said.
Many proposals concern testing new drugs for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
"It's only through clinical trials in the drug area that you get drugs approved," Cusanovich said.
But even with the wide variety of projects, Palmer said he couldn't recall "any bad examples" of experiments conducted on humans at the UA.
Michael Lafleur can be reached via e-mail at Michael.Lafleur@wildcat.arizona.edu.
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