Professor Michael Bate

Michael Bate

University position

Emeritus Professor

Professor Michael Bate is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

Departments

Department of Zoology

Email

cmb16@hermes.cam.ac.uk

Home page

http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaf... (personal home page)

Research Theme

Developmental Neuroscience

The Cambridge Neuroscience Community

Interests

My research is concerned with the way in which the machinery underlying coordinated movement is genetically specified and assembled during embryonic development. On the one hand this involves an analysis of the way in which muscles are assembled, specified and patterned and on the other an investigation of the way in which motor circuits are generated and begin to function. We work with the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster and this means that, as a group, we can bring a combination of genetic, molecular and cellular techniques to bear on these fundamental issues of neuromuscular development.

A pair of cholinergic interneurons labelled by GFP expression in the larval nervous system of Drosophila. These intersegmental interneurons have been selectively revealed using a genetic technique to fractionate the complete set of cholinergic interneurons.
A pair of cholinergic interneurons labelled by GFP expression in the larval nervous system of Drosophila. These intersegmental interneurons have been selectively revealed using a genetic technique to fractionate the complete set of cholinergic interneurons.
Click image to view full-size

Research Focus

Keywords

Development

muscle

neuron

embryo

neural circuit

Clinical conditions

No direct clinical relevance

Equipment

Behavioural analysis

Confocal microscopy

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Fluorescence microscopy

Immunohistochemistry

Intracellular recording

Microscopy

Whole cell patch clamp

Collaborators

Cambridge

Matthias Landgraf

International

K. VijayRaghavan Web: http://www.ncbs.res.in/vijay/g...

Key publications

Dixit R, VijayRaghavan K, Bate M (2008), “Hox genes and the regulation of movement in Drosophila” Dev Neurobiol 68(3): 309-16

Zlatic M, Landgraf M, Bate M (2003), “Genetic specification of axonal arbors: atonal regulates robo3 to position terminal branches in the Drosophila nervous system” Neuron 37:41-51

Suster ML, Bate M (2002), “Embryonic assembly of a central pattern generator without sensory input” Nature 416:174-178

Ruiz-Gómez M, Coutts N, Price A, Taylor MV, Bate M (2000), “Drosophila Dumbfounded: a myoblast attractant essential for fusion” Cell 102:189-198

Publications

2009

Zlatic M, Li F, Strigini M, Grueber W, Bate M (2009), “Positional cues in the Drosophila nerve cord: semaphorins pattern the dorso-ventral axis.” PLoS Biol 7(6):e1000135 Details

2008

Crisp S, Evers JF, Fiala A, Bate M (2008), “The development of motor coordination in Drosophila embryos.” Development 135(22):3707-17 Details

Tripodi M, Evers JF, Mauss A, Bate M, Landgraf M (2008), “Structural homeostasis: compensatory adjustments of dendritic arbor geometry in response to variations of synaptic input.” PLoS Biol 6(10):e260 Details