Study Team
The Study Team at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine supports human studies commissioned by both internal and external clients, working closely and on an interdisciplinary basis with colleagues from the scientific departments.
Thanks to its many years of experience in conducting complex human studies, the team provides valuable support in the planning and implementation of study concepts. The interdisciplinary team comprises staff with expertise in clinical research, biology, project management, nutrition, and laboratory work.
Among other activities, the team participates in (long-term) bed rest and isolation studies for the space agencies ESA and NASA at :envihab. In this context, staff members are primarily responsible for recruiting participants and supporting them before, during and after the studies, as well as for managing the medical laboratories and the participants’ nutrition. In addition, the study team supports the conduct of experiments and hypoxia studies and carries out nutritional studies in collaboration with various university partners and the Institute’s scientific departments.
A particular focus of all studies is the standardization of study conditions, especially in the area of nutrition: The nutrition team as part of the study team develops standardized meal plans and dietary protocols for outpatient and inpatient studies. Depending on the study requirements, precisely defined nutritional limits for various nutrients have to be adhered to. The meal plans are also tailored to the specific requirements of the individual study days or study phases. In collaboration with internal and external researchers, the nutrition team also analyses nutritional data and supports the conduct of experiments.
In addition, the study team plans and carries out outpatient studies on the DLR Short-Arm Centrifuge to develop new countermeasures for safe human spaceflight. The team also coordinates and implements the National Centrifuge Program at the Institute, which provides external researchers with access to the Short-Arm Centrifuge for a range of scientific investigations. Research topics in this area include, for example, how the human body perceives three-dimensional space or how the blood vessels in the eye change under altered gravitational conditions.