Kafatos:Meister, Stephan

Stephan Meister

Laboratory of Insect Immunogenomics
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Division of Cell & Molecular Biology
South Kensington Campus, SAF
London, SW72AZ
UK

fourth floor, desk 483
s.meister[at]imperial.ac.uk
stephan.meister[at]embl.de

Education

• 2001-present, PhD student, EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany.
• 1999-2000 visiting graduate student at Duke University, NC, USA.
• 1996-2001, Diplom Biol., University of Wuerzburg, Germany.

Research Interests

The role of PGRP proteins in innate immunity pathways in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae.

The Anopheles gambiae peptidoglycan recognition protein (PGRP) gene family consists of 7 genes with 13 PGRP domains. We analyze the role of these genes in the mosquito immune defense to bacteria and the malaria parasite Plasmodium berghei. We have previously shown that the NF-κB transcription factor REL2 is involved in defense against both types of bacteria and malaria parasites [1]. IMD is only responsible for the reaction against Gram-positive bacteria and Plasmodium. Our data suggests significant divergence as well as many similarities of immune signaling between Anopheles gambiae and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. The differences most likely reflect the different lifestyles of the two insects and, consequently, different infectious agents that the two insects encounter during their lifetimes. In mosquitoes, one of these agents is the malaria parasite Plasmodium.

Conference posters

BioMalPar Conference, Heidelberg, Germany, 2006

BDV Course, Colorado, USA 2004

EMBO PRR Workshop, Trest by Prague 2003