Mike Bate facts for kids

Christopher Michael Bate (born 21 December 1943) is a well-known scientist who studies how living things grow. He is an Emeritus Professor of developmental biology at the University of Cambridge. This means he is a retired professor who still keeps his important title. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a special honor given to top scientists in the UK.

Mike Bate's father, John Gordon Bate, was a doctor in the R.A.F.. His grandfather, Herbert Bate, was a religious leader called the Dean of York. His mother, Rachel Denise, also came from an interesting family. Her great-uncle, William Temple, was the Archbishop of Canterbury, a very important religious leader in England.

What Does Mike Bate Study?

Mike Bate is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, a group for leading scientists in Europe. His main research looks at how animals learn to move. He studies how the body builds the parts needed for movement during embryonic development. This is the stage when an animal is just starting to grow inside an egg or mother.

How Muscles and Nerves Work Together

Professor Bate's work focuses on two key areas:

• How muscles are formed and organized in the body.
• How motor circuits are made and start working. Motor circuits are like electrical pathways in the body that tell muscles what to do.

He wants to understand how these parts connect to allow smooth, controlled movements.

Research with Fruit Flies

Mike Bate did a lot of his research using a small insect called the fruit fly. Fruit flies are often used in science because they grow quickly and are easy to study. He used different methods, including:

• Genetics: Studying how genes control development.
• Molecular techniques: Looking at tiny molecules inside cells.
• Cellular techniques: Studying how individual cells behave.

He used these methods to understand how nerves and muscles connect, a process called neuromuscular development.

How Muscles Form and Function

Professor Bate also studied how myoblasts, which are special cells, come together to form muscles. He looked at how these cells join up to create strong muscles. He also used electrophysiology, which is the study of electrical signals in the body, to see how young nerve cells in an embryo start to send and receive messages. This helped him understand how these cells become fully working parts of the nervous system.