Immo Alex Hansen
Title: Assistant Professor
Research area: Molecular Vector Biology
Office location: FH 465
Laboratory Location: FH 220
Email Address: immoh@nmsu.edu
Office Phone: 575-646-7719
Lab Webpage: http://www.calliphora.de
Education:
- Diploma - University of Würzburg, Germany, 1998
- Ph.D. - Dept. of Cell- and Developmental Biology, University of
Würzburg, Germany 2001
- Postodoc. - Endocrinology Unit, Medizinische
Polyklinik , University of Würzburg 2001 - 2002
- Assistant Research Entomologist: Dept. Entomology,
University of California Riverside 2002 - 2007
- Research Assistant: Dept. of Cell Biology, University of
Konstanz, Germany 2007 - 2008
Research Interests:
Mosquito females are effective disease vectors for a blood meal from a
vertebrate host is requisite for the promotion of egg development.
Repeated cycles of blood feeding followed by egg development enable the
transmission of pathogens like Plasmodium parasites and viruses from
one host to another. Thus, the reproductive biology of mosquitoes is
tightly linked to their ability to transmit disease pathogens. Research
in my laboratory focuses on the characterization of the molecular
basis of nutrient signaling and its signal transduction in the yellow
fever mosquito Aedes aegypti and the analysis of the relationship
between mosquito nutrition and parasite development. In my lab we
combine vector biology with molecular cell biology, and biochemistry to
develop novel approaches to fight mosquito-borne diseases.
Selected Publications:
- Shiao, S., Hansen, I.A., Raikhel, A.S., Effect of Larval Nutrition and Juvenile Hormone on the Target of Rapamycin Signaling and Multiple Blood Meals in Aedes aegypti. J.Insect Physiol. 54(1), 231-9 (2008)
- Roy, S.G., Hansen, I.A., Raikhel, A.S., Effect of insulin and 20-hydroxyecdysone in the fat body of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. (2007)
- Hansen, I.A., Sieglaff, D.H., Munro, J.B., Shiao, S., Lee, I.W., Heraty, J.M., Raikhel, A.S., Forkhead transcription factors regulate mosquito reproduction. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. 37, 985-97 (2007)
- Attardo, G.M., Hansen, I.A., Shiao, S.H., and Raikhel, A.S. Identification of Two Cationic Amino Acid Transporters required for Nutritional Signaling during Mosquito Reproduction. J. Experimental Biol. 209, 3071-8 (2006)
- Park, J.H., Attardo, G.M., Hansen, I.A., and Raikhel A.S. GATA factor translation is the final downstream step in the amino acid/TOR-mediated vitellogenin gene expression in the anautogenous mosquito Aedes aegypti. J. Biol. Chem. 281, 11167-76 (2006)
- Hansen, I.A., Attardo, G.M., Roy, S.G. & Raikhel, A.S. Target
of rapamycin (TOR)-dependent activation of S6 kinase is a central step
in the transduction of nutritional signals during egg development in a
mosquito. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 20565-72 (2005)
- Hansen, I.A., Attardo, G.M., Park, J.H., Peng, Q. & Raikhel, A.S. Target of rapamycin-mediated amino acid signaling in mosquito anautogeny. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A 101, 10626-10631 (2004)