Clinical Research in Portland, OR

Northwest Research is a medical research organization located in southeast Portland, Oregon. We connect people with opportunities to advance healthcare forward through the development of safe, reliable, and effective medications, devices, and treatment regimens. Our mission is to provide meaningful data for the advancement of medical care. We are also dedicated to bringing earth-friendly medicines to the market.

Learn more about clinical research
Why participate in clinical research?
Meet our team

What is Clinical Research?

Clinical research helps doctors and other healthcare providers learn new ways to prevent and treat illness in people and find answers to questions about health, disease, and human behavior. Clinical research leads to the development of new drugs, new ways to treat old and new illnesses, and new ways to prevent diseases in people at risk of developing them.

How Clinical Research Works

Discovery and Pre-clinical Trials

Long before reaching the clinical trial phase, researchers test and discover new medications and medical treatment regimens in a lab. If a treatment seems promising, it undergoes rigorous testing to evaluate its effectiveness, appropriate dosage, if it interacts with other drugs, and more. Then, the treatment moves to the pre-clinical trial phase where it is determined whether or not the treatment is safe for human testing. For a treatment to reach the clinical trial phase, it must meet a set of robust safety and effectiveness guidelines.

Clinical Trial Design

Researchers design a detailed plan for conducting clinical trials, called a protocol. The protocol is like a roadmap to the study and helps dictate who qualifies to participate in the study, how long it will last, how data will be collected and analyzed, and more. Clinical trials must meet federal standards and receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before moving forward.

Every clinical trial has a Sponsor who oversees the process. This includes identifying an appropriate sites where the trial will take place. A host site is responsible for coordinating the study, finding volunteers to participate, implementing the study protocol, and more.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials have a set of guidelines that dictate who is eligible for participation. The facility conducting the study seeks out volunteers who meet these guidelines. The facility conducts a detailed informed consent process with prospective participants, ensuring that volunteers understand each step of the protocol and what the clinical trial entails.

When a volunteer officially consents to participate in a study, they will receive research-related care, evaluations, and supervision through the facility conducting the study. The facility works closely with the Sponsor and an Institutional Review Board (IRB) to ensure both the protocol and all federal regulations are closely followed.

Areas of Study

  • Chronic Cough

  • COPD

  • Seasonal & Chronic Allergies

  • Skin Conditions

  • Asthma

  • Diabetes

  • Weight Management

  • Sleep Apnea

  • Non-Allergic Rhinitis

  • Viral Infection

Why participate in clinical research at Northwest Research Center?

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  • A clinical research participant is taking an active role in helping medical providers find treatments for conditions of all kinds. As a participant, you could play a part in helping researchers get closer to finding safe and effective treatments for a difficult-to-treat health condition.

  • By the time a treatment reaches the clinical trial phase, it has been extensively studied and been shown to have a high likelihood for improving health outcomes. Because the treatment is in the clinical trial phase, it is not yet available to the general public.

  • Due to the interactive nature of research participation, many people find they learn more about their condition than they would have otherwise. Regardless of whether study treatments are effective, participants learn skills to help manage their symptoms and often do better day-to-day than non-participants.

  • At Northwest Research Center, our professional and experienced staff includes board-certified physicians, physician assistants, a registered nurse, and certified research coordinators. We take special care to ensure study participants are well-informed and comfortable with the process. Study visits are much like any other visit to the doctor’s office.

Meet our team

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Anthony Montanaro, MD

  • Dr. Anthony Montanaro has been a faculty member at Oregon Health Sciences University for over 25 years where he was Head of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Director of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He has acted as an investigator on asthma and allergic disease studies for 20 years. Dr. Montanaro is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology.

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Subra Seetharaman, MD, FAPCR

  • Dr. Subra believes that health includes not just physical well-being but social and emotional well-being as well, and he strives to be available to patients. He spends his free time watching action movies, taking the kids fishing, and picking shells on the Oregon beaches. His life experiences have taken him from the foothills of Mount Fuji, the banks of the Ganges, the pure streams from the Himalayas, to the ashes of Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, but he feels most at home close to Mount Hood, and under the raindrops in the beautiful State of Oregon.

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Carol Pehl, RN, CCRC

Site Manager

  • Carol has been employed at our clinic since January 1996 and currently serves as Site Manager. She is responsible for a productive and supportive work environment. She graduated from North Tees as a State Registered Nurse and Freeman Road Hospital as a Registered Sick Children’s Nurse. Carol moved to the States from the NE of England to work at Arkansas Children’s Hospital as a Charge Nurse and then to California. She has lived in Oregon since 1994 and loves spending time with her three grandchildren.

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Danielle Law

Team Leader

  • Danielle graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Speech Communications. She has been with our clinic since 2013. Danielle and her husband have three boys and spend most of their free time enjoying family activities.

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Jade Fairchild, CCRC

Study Coordinator

  • Jade graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in biochemistry/molecular biology. Her research on organelle positioning is published in Developmental Biology. She is passionate about patient advocacy and rights, and she regularly volunteers to be a study subject. In her free time, she can be found baking, painting, sewing, crafting, and spending time with her and her husband’s menagerie of pets.

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Barry Rhodes, MD

Investigator

  • Dr. Rhodes finds the most satisfaction in working with patients to improve their lives and make them feel healthier. He completed his education, residency, and a fellowship at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. His residency was in family medicine and his fellowship was in sports medicine.

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Melissa Bonilla, CRC

Study Coordinator

  • Melissa graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and went on to earn a Master of Arts degree in Psychopharmacology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She started at NW Research in 2025 and enjoys being part of a team that helps bring innovative treatments from research to real-world impact. Looking ahead, she hopes to contribute to studies exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for mental health treatment that support lasting healing. In her free time, Melissa enjoys epic fantasy and sci-fi books, attending music festivals, and exploring the PNW with her husband, little one, and dog.

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Lisa Zeigler, CRC

Study Coordinator

  • Lisa has been a certified medical assistant since 1994. She has been a study coordinator for over 20 years and has experience in a wide variety of indications, with expertise in HIV/AIDs. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking and keeping up with her 2 dogs and a cat.

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Brittany V, MPH, CRC

Study Coordinator

  • Brittany graduated from Portland State University with degrees in Psychology and Public Health. She spent over 12 years working primarily on NIH funded research. She is excited to bring her skills to Northwest Research. In her free time, she can be found volunteering or spending time with her family. She is an Oregonian through and through and is happy to share where the best outdoor spots are located.

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Andrzej Stadnik, PA-C, MPH

Investigator

  • Anj believes in providing compassionate, patient-centered care that prioritizes understanding, empathy, and collaboration. His philosophy centers on creating a safe, non-judgmental environment where patients feel respected and empowered to express their health concerns openly. He completed his education at Yale University.

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Rebecca Raccanelli

Study Coordinator

  • Rebecca is passionate about clinical research and comes to our team from Providence Cancer Institute, where she facilitated pre-study startup activities. Outside of work, she is an avid gamer, crocheter, and performer on both voice and violin. She was recently seen in productions of Patience, Flash Ah Ahhhh!!, Iolanthe, Kinky Boots, and Young Frankenstein. She was a 2008 winner of Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway Contest.