Christopher Michael Bate, FRS (born 21 December 1943) is an Emeritus Professor of

developmental biology Developmental biology is the study of the process by which animals and plants grow and develop. Developmental biology also encompasses the biology of Regeneration (biology), regeneration, asexual reproduction, metamorphosis, and the growth and di ...

at the Department of

Zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

and fellow at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

. The son of John Gordon Bate, M.B. Ch.B., an R.A.F. doctor, of

Holmbury St Mary Holmbury St Mary is a village in Surrey, England centered on shallow upper slopes of the Greensand Ridge. Its developed area is a nucleated village, southwest of Dorking and southeast of Guildford. Most of the village is in the borough of Gui ...

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

, his paternal grandfather was Herbert Bate, Dean of York 1932–41. His mother, Rachel Denise, was daughter of Samuel Ronald Courthope Bosanquet, KC, recorder of Walsall, Chancellor of the Diocese of Hertford; a great-uncle on the maternal side, William Temple, was

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

from 1942 to 1944. Mike Bate is a member of

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

. His research is concerned with the way in which the machinery underlying coordinated movement is assembled during

embryo An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...

nic development. This involves both the analysis of the way in which

muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...

s are assembled, specified and patterned, and the investigation of the way in which motor circuits are generated and begin to function. Bate worked with the fruit fly, ''

Drosophila melanogaster ''Drosophila melanogaster'' is a species of fly (an insect of the Order (biology), order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae. The species is often referred to as the fruit fly or lesser fruit fly, or less commonly the "vinegar fly", "pomace fly" ...

'' and applied a combination of genetic, molecular and cellular techniques to bear on the issues of neuromuscular development. Mike Bate also worked on the genetic basis of

myoblast Myogenesis is the formation of skeletal muscular tissue, particularly during embryonic development. Muscle fibers generally form through the fusion of precursor myoblasts into multinucleated fibers called myotubes. In the early development o ...

recruitment and fusion and on an

electrophysiological Electrophysiology (from ee the Electron#Etymology, etymology of "electron" ; and ) is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of biological cell (biology), cells and tissues. It involves measurements of voltage change ...

and structural analysis of the way in which functional properties are acquired by embryonic neurons.

References

External links

Website at the Department of Zoology

''Alan Macfarlane'', 2 July 2008 English biologists 1943 births Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Living people Fellows of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people) {{England-biologist-stub