News
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
- Share
Latest News
The young brain
How young adults remember events may occur in a different part of the brain to older adults, meaning that perhaps a developmental change takes place in the brain in older […]
Divided city
Can culture act as a bridge to connect groups who are in conflict? How do divided cities operate on a day to day basis? And how do people negotiate contested […]
Aid agencies ‘failing urban displaced’
The humanitarian sector has failed to act on the issue of urban displacement and has struggled to employ existing knowledge and to adapt practice, according to a new report co-edited […]
A passion for science
As a promising young student, Chidiebere Akusobi took part in a programme for inner city students in New York which gained him entry to an elite private school. From there […]
Original sources
A Gates Cambridge alumnus has discovered an overlooked medieval manuscript – a missing historical link – that answers some old questions and raises many new questions about how Gregorian chant […]
Giving something back
Niraj Lal is having a double celebration this week after winning a gold award for his voluntary education outreach work and having a paper on his solar power research published […]
Scholar scoops poetry prize
Gates Cambridge Scholar Kate Crowcroft has won the John Kinsella / Tracy Ryan Poetry Prize – the most prestigious poetry prize at Cambridge. Kate won joint first place for her […]
Judge team to advise on Togo’s development
A team of Cambridge alumni led by Sir Paul Judge will help to prepare a framework for the development of Togo over the next 10-20 years. Sir Paul, the key […]
An anthropology of ourselves
Rachel Bolten is fascinated by the crossover between politics, literature and history. It is that fascination which will bring her to the University of Cambridge this autumn to study the […]
