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 alumnus has given testimony to a Food and Drug Administration hearing in the US on how to develop drugs for the world’s poorest people. Dr Andrew Robertson, co-founder […]
The Gates Scholars Council is running its first Internal Symposium of Michaelmas term this week. The symposium includes four presentations by scholars on their research. Mathew Madhavacheril‘s talk “Mapping the […]
A newly arrived Gates scholar plans to set up an international surgery exchange programme. Dr Trevor Ellison [2010] is doing an MBA in management at Cambridge this year which he […]
Dr Trevor Ellison grew up with a realisation of the importance of medicine from an early age and this has spurred to set up an international surgery exchange programme to […]
A Gates scholar has been awarded a prestigious Australian Geographic award for a canoe expedition around Indonesia’s Togean Islands which highlighted the impact of overfishing on traditional communities. Alex Vail, […]
Robert Schumann’s ‘musician’s cramp’ was a neural rather than a muscular problem, according to Gates alumna Dr Jessica Grahn. She spoke about the German composer, who is celebrating his 200thanniversary […]
Gates scholar Charlie Melvoin [2010] developed a love of Chinese at an early age and his fascination has led him aroumd the globe and finally to Cambridge. He has, for […]
When he was a young boy, Charlie Melvoin developed what he calls “an inexplicable attraction” to Chinese characters. This attraction grew over the years and has already resulted in him […]
Ten Gates scholars will be attending a House of Lords meeting this week organised by Harambe Endeavor, a network of African students and professionals set up to promote African development. […]
New Gates scholar Sam Sudar has just arrived at Cambridge, having spent the last eight months on a travel bursary visiting 12 countries. During his trip he had dinner with […]