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
A Gates Cambridge Alumnus oversaw the policing of a major political rally in Germany in early August. Dirk-Hinrich Haar [2005] is Superintendent for Germany’s Federal Police and Deputy Chief of […]
Do you want to apply for a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship? Then find out all the information you need at a webinar on 6 September. The webinar will be hosted […]
The new Gates Cambridge Alumni Association Board of Directors has been announced. Co-Chairs are Nathan George (USA, 2003) and Mamta Thangaraj (India, 2003). Nathan, the GCAA’s former Membership Director (USA), […]
Why do some people become addicts and others do not? In the UK about 6% of young people try cocaine. Despite the incredible addictive powers of the drug, only about […]
Indian women’s accounts of the impact of partition have been little heard. Anjali Datta wants to focus not only on how the partition of 1947 affected them, but on the […]
What will the wider impact of the Arab Spring be on social policies around the Middle East region? Gates Cambridge Scholar Elect Mona Jebril is interested in looking at the […]
Scientists have used bioinformatics approaches to shed new light on the way our bodies produce proteins, which could help design therapeutic strategies for tissue-specific diseases such as cancer. Next-Generation Sequencing […]
Derron Wallace’s research trip to Ethiopia didn’t begin well. The person he stayed with was arrested and Derron was not allowed to access any of his belongings or his room. […]
A short film of this summer’s unveiling of the new vision for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships has been released. The film includes footage of the event which was attended by […]