The NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, Germany

The DLR/NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF) was founded in 1985 in cooperation with NASA and is located at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof. This library of planetary photographs and maps keeps on file all the image data transmitted by many NASA and ESA space probes and makes them accessible to the public in Europe and mainly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

In vivo activity of a mixture of two human monoclonal antibodies (anti-HBs) in a chronic hepatitis B virus carrier chimpanzee

A 35-year-old female hepatitis B virus carrier chimpanzee was infused with one dose of a mixture of human monoclonal antibodies 9H9 and 4-7B (antibodies against hepatitis B virus surface antigen; HBsAg). Blood samples were taken before and up to 3 weeks after infusion. HBsAg and antibodies against HBsAg (anti-HBs) were quantified by radioimmunoassay and enzyme immunoassay. Free anti-HBs was never detected. Thirty min after the start of the infusion the HBsAg level was minimal with maximum loading of the chimpanzee HBsAg with human immunoglobulin. HBsAg complexes could be dissociated by acid treatment. The HBsAg level was completely restored on day 7. Similar results were obtained for the preS1-containing particles that may represent the infectious viral particles in the chimpanzee serum. A mouse monoclonal anti-HBs (HBs.OT40) was found to compete with 9H9 in artificial immune complexes with the pre-treatment HBsAg from the chimpanzee. Used as a conjugate, HBs.OT40 yielded a maximum decrease in the signal in the 30 min sample compared to non-competing anti-HBs conjugates. This indicates binding of HBsAg with 9H9 in the circulation of the chimpanzee. Immune-complexed 4-7B could not be detected by its corresponding 4-7B peptide conjugate, probably due to its low concentration in the complexes. It is concluded that human monoclonal anti-HBs can effectively reduce the level of HBsAg in serum from this chronic carrier. Monoclonals 9H9 and 4-7B may complement each other due to their different mechanisms of inactivation, probably with higher efficiency than that monitored by our HBsAg screening assays

Lunar Exploration Orbiter (LEO): Providing a Globally Covered, Highly Resolved, Integrated Geological, Geochemical and Gephysical Data Base of the Moon

The German initiative for the Lunar Exploration Orbiter (LEO) originated from the national conference “Exploration of our Solar System”, held in Dresden in November 2006. Major result of this conference was that the Moon is of high interest for the scientific community for various reasons, it is affordable to perform an orbiting mission to Moon and it insures technological and scientific progress necessary to assist further exploration activities of our Solar System. Based on scientific proposals elaborated by 50 German scientists in January 2007, a preliminary payload of 12 instruments was defined. Further analysis were initated by DLR in the frame of two industry contracts, to perform a phase-zero mission definition. The Moon, our next neighbour in the Solar System is the first choice to learn, how to work and live without the chance of immediate support from earth and to get prepared for further and farther exploration missions. We have to improve our scientific knowledge base with respect to the Moon applying modern and state of the art research tools and methods. LEO is planed to be launched in 2012 and shall orbit the Moon for about four years in a low altitude orbit

Purification of recombinant Aβ(1-42) and pGlu-Aβ(3-42) using preparative SDS-PAGE

Recombinant expression and purification of amyloid peptides represents a common basis for investigating the molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation and toxicity. However, the isolation of the recombinant peptides is hampered by inefficient separation from contaminants such as the fusion protein required for efficient expression in E. coli. Here, we present a new approach for the isolation of highly purified Aβ(1-42) and pGlu-Aβ(3-42), which is based on a separation using preparative SDS-PAGE. The method relies on the purification of the Aβ fusion protein by affinity chromatography followed by preparative SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions and subsequent removal of detergents by precipitation. The application of preparative SDS-PAGE represents the key step to isolate highly pure recombinant Aβ, which has been applied for characterization of aggregation and toxicity. Thereby, the yield of the purification strategy was >60%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of an electrophoresis-based method for purification of a recombinant Aβ peptide. Therefore, the method might be of interest for isolation of other amyloid peptides, which are critical for conventional purification strategies due to their aggregation propensity

The Experiments HRSC and WAOSS on the Russian Mars 94/96 Missions

The two German cameras High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) and Wide Angle Optoelectronic Stereo Scanner (WAOSS) will be flown on the Russian Mars missions. The paper gives an overview about the scientific objectives of the camera experiments and the basic instrument design parameters. The operational concept and the expected data production are shortly presented for the actual Mars mission scenario. The camera experiments consists of the flight hardware and the ground segment including experiment operations and data acquisition, processing, and management

Mars 94/96 Pushbroom Cameras: Plans for Ground Data Processing and Analysis

The ground data processing system for the HRSC and WAOSS stereo scanner systems on board the Russian Mars 94/96 missions is currently being developed by DLR. The system involves software to generate decompressed, decalibrated, and geometrically corrected standard photo products for expected 200 GB of image data, and in addition DEMs, orthoimages and various topographic and thematic image maps for selected imagery. Other software is being developed for the analysis of compositional properties of the surface and for studies of the Martian atmosphere. all software will be based on the VICAR/SPICE environment and will be designed to operate on the hardware platforms DEC AXP, SUN, and SG. Data will be archived on CD-ROMs in PDS formats to facilitate data exchange among an international team of experiment Co-Investigators