Located within Toulouse University Hospital, the Space Clinic has over 20 years of experience in coordinating and conducting clinical studies. A specialist team supports investigators at every stage of clinical research projects, helped by an ideally suited infrastructure at the leading edge of innovation.
This week 20 women are tucking themselves in a waterbed for five days as part of a dry immersion study to recreate some of the effects of spaceflight on the body. The campaign kicked off 21th spetember with the first two subjects at the MEDES Space cliniq in Toulouse, France.
Volunteers lay down in containers similar to bathtubs covered with a waterproof fabric to keep them dry and evenly suspended in water. As a result, the body experiences ‘supportlessness’ – something close to what astronauts experience while floating on the International Space Station.
Called "Cocktail," the study is sponsored by CNES and ESA. It will last 3 months (including 60 days in bed) and take place over 2 campaigns, each involving 10 volunteers: from January to April and then from September to December 2017.
The aim of the study is to simulate conditions similar to those on manned space flights in order to test a prevention method intended to mitigate the adverse effects of weightlessness on the human body and prepare astronauts for their return to Earth.
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Innovative equipmentThe clinic’s infrastructure is ideally suited to conducting clinical trials, with modular room spaces and a large pool of equipment:
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Diverse skillsThe clinic is specialised and equipped to work in a variety of areas:
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Multiple cooperative projectsThe clinic works with a wide number of organisations and institutions:
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