Immunity Assay

Understanding how the immune system reacts to prolonged stays in space is the focus of Immunity Assay, led by Alexander Choukér and Judith-Irina Buchheim with their team at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Hospital in Munich, Germany.  As the first ESA astronaut to participate, Andreas engaged in the preparation and incubation of 48 blood samples over three sessions.“This project has been challenging in the best way as we are building a basis for future monitoring of astronaut’s immune system as they go to the Moon and Mars, says Alexander Choukér, professor and Head of Research Laboratory I – 'Stress and Immunity’ at LMU´s Department of Anesthesiology.

"It requires a strong and agile collaboration between academia, industry, ESA, and NASA. All these institutions worked together for the astronaut, in this case Andreas, to take a sample, process it and store it. This cooperation is remarkable, and we look forward to more samples from the current and future crew members. ” adds Alexander. The contributors to the project are the contractor company Kayser Italia, NASA Johnson Space Center’s Immunology lab, BIOTESC, CADMOS and other helping hands.

Andreas’s samples are now back on Earth and will soon arrive to the laboratory in Munich, Germany, for analyses.