Dr. Hassan Mutasim Mohammed Ahmed*

2005 B.Sc. (Honours) Agric. (Entomology) “First Class”, Department of Crop Protection, University of Khartoum, Sudan
2011 M.Sc. Genetics & Molecular Biology “A", Department of Zoology, University of Khartoum, Sudan
2019 Dr. rer.nat. “summa cum laude”, Department of Developmental Biology, Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany
2020-2022 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Developmental Biology, Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany
2022-present Research Associate; Department of Developmental Biology, Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany

Major Research Interests
Genetics of insect sex determination:
One of the earliest and most important decisions to be taken by living organisms at very early embryonic stages is whether to become a female or a male. As they represent the most diverse group of organisms on earth, Insects have evolved different mechanisms that lead to the development of one sex or the other. In many cases embryos are instructed by the mother to develop into females (default fate) unless the egg is fertilized by a sperm carrying maleness factor.
In the last 10 years, thanks to NGS technologies, several maleness genes were discovered in different dipterans including the housefly Musca domestics, several mosquito species, the medfly Ceratitis capitata and other tephritids. Interestingly, all those genes are not related and how they function is not yet clear.
We use ectopic gene expression, RNA interference, genome editing and mass-spectrometry to elucidate the function of these males’ gene and identify their interaction partners.
Genetic pest control strategies:
The global awareness of the health issues associated with the use of insecticides plus the rapid emergence of insecticide resistance necessitate the search for better strategies.
One of the most successful genetic pest control strategies that can be used for insect population suppression or even eradication is the sterile insect technique. It involves mass production of the target insect, sex separation, sterilization of the males and innudative area-wide release of sterile males to mate with wild type females leading to infertile mattings and population suppression.
Since only males are intended and allowed to be release, my major focus is to use genetic engineering, CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing tools and developmental biology knowledge to engineer novel genetic sexing systems to facilitate early elimination of females at embryonic stages or manipulation of genes involved in sex determination to achieve conversion of females into XX fertile males.

Homepage Department/Research Group
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/hassan+mutasim+mohammed+ahmed/471127.html

ORCID: 0000-0002-4322-2987