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Benjamin Cocanougher
- Alumni
- United States
- 2016 PhD Zoology
- St Catharine's College
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.
Previous Education
Centre College
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Latest News
What’s the future for energy?
The people of the world will need ever more energy in the years ahead, but it’s not yet clear how this demand will be met. The sheer size and scale of this dilemma clearly requires input and ideas from both the private sector and public institutions. That’s why a Gates alumnus has brought together a […]
Miami-bound
A Gates alumnus who is working on a community-based violence prevention scheme in the US will be the first speaker at an annual series of talks at the University of Miami on major international fellowship programmes in the UK and Ireland. Shamsher Samra [2007] will talk about his personal experiences as a Gates scholar at […]
The crisis of shareholder primacy
How do we prevent another financial crisis? Since the devastation that began with the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2007, a great deal of ink has been spilled trying to answer this question. Unfortunately, most official accounts of the crisis, and how to avoid the next one, have missed the mark. They […]
The international language of hip hop
From its roots in the US urban scene, hip hop has been widely adopted the world over, but in the process it has been adapted and made relevant to particular youth groups. In East Africa that has meant hip hop artists using it as a vehicle for expressing their thoughts on everything from colonialism to […]
Gates scholar scoops prestigious fellowship
A Gates Cambridge scholar has been awarded a prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship. Victor Roy has been offered a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans which will fund part of his medical school education. He did his MPhil in Modern Societies and Global Transformations in 2009 with the support of a Gates […]
Gates Cambridge scholars head for Oxford
Twenty-three Gates Cambridge scholars will be heading to Oxford this weekend to take part in a unique exchange with Rhodes scholars. This weekend’s exchange follows a successful exchange last term where 15 Gates Scholars hosted 15 Rhodes Scholars in Cambridge. The aim of the exchange is to stimulate networking among scholars from diverse backgrounds and […]
Turning up the noise on gene expression
Why do some people develop diseases when they carry a particular gene while others don’t? Increasing evidence indicates the answer partly lies in the variable nature of gene expression which makes all of our cells unique despite sharing the same genomic information. A new paper co-authored by a Gates Cambridge scholar seeks to clarify the […]
What do gorillas and humans have in common?
Researchers have completed the genome sequence for the gorilla – the last genus of the living great apes to have its genome decoded. While confirming that our closest relative is the chimpanzee, the team, including two Gates Cambridge alumni, show that much of the human genome more closely resembles the gorilla than it does the […]
The politics of conservation
How do environmental policies get made? What is the trade-off in fast developing countries like India between conservation and economic growth? What role does coalition politics have? Rohini Chaturvedi [2007] is looking at how a complex country like India makes policy so that she can understand better what the key factors are for promoting conservation. […]
Our risk society
Does studying literature at close quarters make it harder to create it? As both an award-winning poet and academic, Jaya Savige [2008] can answer this question better than most. Jaya is studying for a PhD in English, funded by a Gates Cambridge scholarship. He admits that it can be difficult to sustain any creative practice […]
