Das Projekt "Comparison and validation of novel pyrogen tests based on the human fever reaction (HUMAN(E) PYROGEN TES)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Steinbeis-Transferzentrum, In-Vitro Pharmakologie und Toxikologie durchgeführt. Pyrogen testing is a crucial safety control of drugs as well as innovative high- tech products such as medical, cellular therapies and species-specific agents (e.g. recombinant proteins). For most biologicals, especially blood-derived drugs, the rabbit animal experiment represents still the method of choice consuming hundreds of thousands animals in the EU per year. This test is laborious, expensive, raises ethical concerns and can not be applied for some of the new products. In recent years, in Europe a number of alternative cellular assays have been developed exploiting the human fever reaction, i.e. human leukocytes release inflammatory mediators in the presence of pyrogenic contamination. The suggested network brings together the most prominent test systems for trans-national comparison and subsequent validation of the most promising models as an integrated goal-oriented problem solving approach.
Das Projekt "Protection of cultural heritage by real-time corrosion monitoring (MUSECORR)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Institut de la Corrosion SAS durchgeführt. Objective: There are many factors affecting air corrosivity, but it is only the temperature and sometimes the relative humidity that are controlled and monitored in indoor premises where valuable and culturally significant objects are stored or displayed. Additional anti-corrosion measures are usually applied only when often-irreplaceable historical objects have already been affected. Information on the actual corrosivity of the atmosphere is crucial to effective corrosion protection and there is a strong need for professionals active in the protection of cultural heritage to have a tool enabling real-time assessment of the air corrosivity. In a project financed within FP6, prototypes of loggers for continuous measurement of the corrosion rate of selected technical metals in atmospheric conditions were developed. The electronic unit measures and records changes in the electrical resistance of a thin metal track applied on an insulating substrate. The developed concept offers several important advantages, such as on-line and real-time monitoring, small size, easy replaceable metal sensors, remote data access, and automatic data delivery via e-mail. The main objectives of the present project that will allow for the application of the logger in the cultural heritage sphere are: (1) To develop new sensors such as silver, lead, and metal alloys simulating more closely historical materials. (2) To improve currently available sensors by decreasing the metal layer thickness to 50