Some of the quickest, easiest money at Penn State might be made as a research subject.

With the numerous psychological and physiological experiments taking place across campus, the General Clinical Research Center provides one more outlet for students who want some fast cash.

Located in Noll Lab, the center focuses its studies mainly on the physiology of its subjects, researching things such as nutrition, exercise and disease-related issues. Currently, there are 40 active programs, with 10 at a time taking place on a typical day, said Nancy Lambert, clinical nurse specialist.

Each program is called a protocol, with the researchers, also called the investigators, responsible for things such as gathering subjects and conducting the study. Advertisements placed in the newspaper or flyers put around campus usually promote the protocol.

The GCRC receives about 300 visits a month and at least half of those are students, said coordinator Sue Eberly.

The amount of compensation the subject receives depends on the study.

"(We) could pay $10 to $15 for a student feed study, but several hundred for something more invasive," Eberly said. Protocols receive funding to pay their subjects from various sources, such as the government or private industry.

Before a protocol is started it must first pass by the Institutional Review Board regarding patient safety issues, and an advisement committee that questions the scientific merit of the study and how the facilities are being used.

"For the most part, we have positive relations with the students," Lambert said, adding that students generally trust the investigators of the studies in which they are participating.

A common traits study pays its participants $75 following three days of assessment. Collecting information from families and individual subjects regarding various physical traits, investigators are seeking 1,000 African-Americans, European-Americans and Hispanic subjects each, according to the consent form.

Participants fill out a questionnaire about their ancestry as well as have their physical traits documented by the investigator. What stands out most about the experiment is a skin response test that emits a small dose of ultraviolet radiation to simulate how the patient's skin reacts to the sun.

Celina Sicard, the study coordinator, sees eight new patients a week, with a total of 30 patients a week. "It's not hard to recruit," she said.

Not afraid of the procedures done at the clinic, Keith Hackett (junior-landscape architecture), has participated in studies before and is involved in this study to learn more about his body.

Sicard has been surveying patients since October and said people outside the university, whose ages range from 40 to 60 years old, are generally more skeptical and harder to work with. "Students are more willing to do it for the money," she said.

Interested in helping science, Kathy Gorman (graduate-nutrition), also is participating. "(I) feel comfortable with the staff conducting the study," she said. She would like to participate in another study if she can meet the criteria.

Like most experiments taking place in the GCRC, there are exclusion criteria that can include anything from diseases of the skin to certain medications and diabetes, Sicard said.