Peter Christ Email & Phone Number

Bonn, Nrw, De

Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Same job - different name, we are now Max Planck

Bonn Area, Germany

Alnarp, Sweden

What makes mosquitoes drink blood? Or more precisely, what makes them stop? These are the questions I addressed during my Ph.D. In a journey into the brain of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti I identified the neurochemistry behind host attraction in this important disease vector. Starting at the Philipps University of Marburg I needed to be able to analyses brains as small as that of mosquitoes and so improved and established a protocol for quantitative MALDI-TOF mass… Show more What makes mosquitoes drink blood? Or more precisely, what makes them stop? These are the questions I addressed during my Ph.D. In a journey into the brain of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti I identified the neurochemistry behind host attraction in this important disease vector. Starting at the Philipps University of Marburg I needed to be able to analyses brains as small as that of mosquitoes and so improved and established a protocol for quantitative MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for small neuronal tissue. With this technique, I identified two neuropeptides as neuroactive substances involved in the regulation of host-seeking. Later at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Sweden, I was able to show that these neuropeptides are indeed effective suppressors of mosquito host-seeking behavior, by injecting them into the lymph system of those animals. In a second project at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, I deepened the understanding of the neuropeptide regulation in Aedes aegypti as well as in two other disease vectors, the Malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae and the southern house mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus. Here I investigated the corresponding receptors of the neuropeptides that I identified in the first project, regarding their conservation, function, and regulation in response to blood feeding. In this project, I learned more about database mining, cloning, heterologous expression systems and quantitative RT-PCR. In summary, I tackled an exciting project that started with the identification of neuropeptides involved in the regulation of host-seeking, ended with the careful characterization of the neuropeptide-receptor interaction and might even lead to practical applications in the future. Show less

Alnarp

In the vector group under the supervision of Rickard Ignell and Sharon Hill, I learned to perform behavioral assays with mosquitoes and neuropeptide injection into live animals. * Behavioral analysis* Neuropeptide injection

Copenhagen Area, Capital Region, Denmark

I worked together with Frank Hauser to investigate neuropeptide receptors in terms of conservation, function and regulation in various mosquito species. * Molecular biology* Heterologous Protein Expression (using CHO cells)* Phylogenetic Analysis * quantitative RT-PCR

Marburg, Germany

Together with the working group of Joachim Schachtner, I established an improved methodology for peptide quantification in small neuronal tissue using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. * MALDI-TOF - mass spectrometry* High precision dissections* Protocol development* Data curation

Marburg

I worked as a student researcher in the working group of Joachim Schachtner in the Neurobiology and Ethology, where I also wrote my Bachelor's and Master's thesis. In a large project, we investigated the plasticity of the brain in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.* Immunohistochemistry* Neuroanatomy * Neurochemistry* RNAi* 3D visualization * Olfaction

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd - Biology, Neurobiology And Behavior

Master Of Science - Ms, Cell/Cellular And Molecular Biology, Very Good (14.1 Grade Points)

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biology, Very Good (German Grate 1.7)