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
Gates scholar Jaya Savige was invited to meet the Queen at an official reception earlier this month ahead of an official royal visit to Australia this week. Jaya [2008], an […]
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A networking organisation co-founded by Gates alumni and designed to help bright young people get the ear of busy decision makers is opening up to the public from Monday. Robyn […]
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Gavin McGillivray, head of the new Private Sector Department of the UK Department for International Development, will give the first Gates Distinguished Lecture of the academic year tomorrow. McGillivray will […]
Gates scholar Marina Minic has played a key role in research which has identified the cause of a rare, life-threatening form of hypoglycaemia. The findings, published in the journal Science, […]