| Citation | Michae Bate works on the development of the nervous and muscle systems of insects. He was the first to show that the emryonic neuroblasts are identifiable and to count and map them. He initially used the grasshopper but later showed the map applied to Drosophila, a discovery that has founded much molecular genetics of neurogenesis and axon guidance. Ross Harrison originally proposed the idea of pioneer neurons, nerve cells that would serve as a scaffold for the developing CNS; Bate was the first to identify such neurons and to study their growth; he showed they utilised identifiable guidepost cells. Recently he has studied the develpment of muscles and muscle pattern and showed that muscles are founded by identifiable founder cells. |