Research
Current projects
I will be establishing the liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry method of quantifying neurochemicals from insect brains at the University of Konstanz. I will be using the Waters XEVO-TQS triple quadrupole mass spectrometer coupled to a Waters Acquity UPLC system.
This method is intended to be transferable to different insects. Current sub-projects include optimizing lyophilization conditions for brain dissections of ants, using in-house made stage-tips for sample cleanup and standardizing the Bradford method of protein estimation for species with large brain size variation.
This project stems from my PhD work where I found a correlation between honey bee foraging behavior, across behavioral contexts, and the ratios between histamine and its precursor, histidine. I explore the relevance of this finding by using pharmacological experiments. By treating feeder trained bees with histamine, histidine, or the antagonist ranitidine, I look for changes in foraging activity.
Histamine is the transmitter of the photoreceptor, and is involved in behaviors including mechanosensation and circadian rhythmicity. However, it has not been given much importance in other behaviors. The finding that it might be involved in foraging behavior opens the possibility that its function in invertebrates and vertebrates are conserved, in regulating appetitive motivation.
