Göttinger Graduiertenzentrum für Neurowissenschaften, Biophysik und Molekulare Biowissenschaften

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


Selected Recent Publications

peer reviewed:


  • Isah, M.D., Atika, B., Dippel, S.; Ahmed, H.M.M. & Wimmer, E.A. 2022. Competitive sperm-marked beetles for monitoring approaches in genetic biocontrol and studies in reproductive biology. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 23:12594. Special Issue: Sperm and Seminal Plasma: A Molecular Genetics Perspective.

  • Ahmed, H.M.M., Heese, F., Wimmer, E.A., 2020. Improvement on the genetic engineering of an invasive agricultural pest insect, the cherry vinegar fly, Drosophila suzukii. BMC Genetics 21, 139.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-020-00940-5

  • Ahmed, H.M.M., Hildebrand, L., Wimmer, E.A., 2019. Improvement and use of CRISPR/Cas9 to engineer a sperm-marking strain for the invasive fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. BMC Biotechnol 19, 85. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12896-019-0588-5

  • Carrami, E.M.*, Eckermann, K.N.*, Ahmed, H.M.M.*, Sánchez C., H.M., Dippel, S., Marshall, J.M., Wimmer, E.A., 2018. Consequences of resistance evolution in a Cas9-based sex conversion-suppression gene drive for insect pest management. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 115, 6189–6194. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1713825115. (*equal contribution).

  • Eckermann, K.N.*, Ahmed, H.M.M.*, Carrami, E.M.*, Dippel, S.*, Ogaugwu, C.E., Kitzmann, P., Isah, M.D., Wimmer, E.A., 2018. Hyperactive piggyBac transposase improves transformation efficiency in diverse insect species. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 98, 16–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibmb.2018.04.001. (*equal contribution).

  • Eckermann, K.N., Dippel, S., Carrami, E.M., Ahmed, H.M., Curril, I.M., Wimmer, E.A., 2014. Perspective on the combined use of an independent transgenic sexing and a multifactorial reproductive sterility system to avoid resistance development against transgenic Sterile Insect Technique approaches. BMC Genet 15, S17. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2156-15-S2-S17



Book chapters:


  • Ahmed, H.M.M., Wimmer, E.A. 2022. Site-specific Recombination for Gene Locus-directed Transgene Integration and Modification. In “Transgenic Insects” (eds. Benedict, M.Q. and Scott, M.J.), pp. 100-124. CABI, Wallingford, United Kingdom.

  • Farnworth, M.S., Eckermann, K.N., Ahmed, H.M.M., Mühlen, D.S., He, B., Bucher, G., 2020. The Red Flour Beetle as Model for Comparative Neural Development: Genome Editing to Mark Neural Cells in Tribolium Brain Development, in: Sprecher, S.G. (Ed.), Brain Development: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology. Springer, New York, NY, pp. 191–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9732-9_11