Research

Bodo E. A. Christ is distinguished for his extensive body of work on the development of the locomotory system in amniote embryos. Most of the work was performed at the Institute of Anatomy, Ruhr-University of Bochum, and the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Freiburg, where his laboratory acquired a high international reputation. Making use of experimentally produced quail-chick chimeras he was the first to discover that the somites are the source of all myogenic precursor cells in the body. This finding irreversibly altered the course of muscle research.

Additionally, he studied specification and migration modalities of distinct somitic cell populations at the molecular level and described the signal mechanisms involved. Another field of his work is the genesis of metamerism in amniote embryos to which he contributed novel and important findings, especially to the development of vertebral column and ribs.