I grew up catching praying mantises and damselflies in rural Kentucky. As an undergraduate at Centre College, I majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I spent my summers taking care of sick children at the Center for Courageous Kids and doing research in organic chemistry and neuroscience. I matriculated directly to the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and completed my first three years of medical school. I then moved to Janelia Research Campus as a HHMI Medical Research Fellow; there I studied the neural and genetic bases of behavior. As a PhD student in Zoology, I will study adaptive behavior. All animals integrate information about past experience into future decisions; this is the basis of learning and memory. I am proposing to write a specific memory and read the memory trace in the brain. I will use the fruit fly as a model organism. By understanding mechanisms of memory storage, we can begin to investigate changes in memory formation in disease; this may allow us to develop rational therapies for disorders of memory formation, including autism and Alzheimer’s disease. After completing my PhD, I will return to finish my last year of medical school and pursue a career as a child neurologist and neuroscientist, using my lab to better understand the patients I see in clinic.
Centre College
Elijah Darden was brought up with a strong sense of health inequalities and an awareness that multiple approaches affect wellbeing. Through his MPhil in Population Health Sciences, he is keen […]
This month’s 25th anniversary impact feature focuses on politics and law. The last 25 years have seen major political change across the world and Gates Cambridge Scholars have been working […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is first author of a paper how AI Ethics is sidelining Global South voices, reinforcing marginalisation. The study, Distributive Epistemic Injustice in AI Ethics: A Co-productionist […]
Professor Alessio Ciulli has become the first Gates Cambridge Scholar to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society [FRS]. Professor Ciulli, the founder and Director of the University of […]
Friends and colleagues are raising money for a prize dedicated to the legacy of the late Gates Cambridge Scholar Arif Naveed. Arif [2014] was an outstanding educationalist with a deep […]
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars who are leaders in community work, government and business discuss what kind of leadership we need in today’s turbulent world in the sixth episode of the […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been appointed by the UK Department of Work and Pensions [DWP] to help design innovative policies and data-driven evidence to support social welfare and wellbeing […]
Poor mental health is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide and is linked to poor educational and professional outcomes and serious psychological distress. Over 75% of mental illnesses […]
Gates Cambridge Scholar Reetika Subramanian has been selected as one of six early years researchers in the 2025 New Generation Thinkers cohort. The scheme, which is supported by the UKRI […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has won the UK final of Famelab in the science communication competition’s 20th anniversary year. Spatika Jayaram was crowned UK winner at the ceremony in early […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is preparing to publish her first book which examines the British political origins of the Patriot movement that inspired the American Revolution. Patriots Before Revolution: The […]