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
New Gates scholars arriving at Cambridge will be welcomed at an official dinner given by the new Provost this evening. The 78 new scholars, from 22 countries ranging from El Salvador to China, […]
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Yen-Chun Chen wanted to be a politician when she was a teenager. She started her academic career studying political science, but then realised that theory had nothing to do with […]
New Gates scholar Matthew Tasker is in negotiations with Microsoft to create educational material for indigenous people in Ecuador. Australian Matthew, who will begin an MPhil in Environment, Society and Development […]
Talking about development is very different from actually doing it, says Matthew Tasker, so the Australian social anthropology student decided to find out for himself by heading for Ecuador. Eighteen […]
A Gates alumna has had articles published in the Huffington Post and several other national publications in the US in an effort to share her academic research with a broader […]
The annual Gates Cambridge Scholarship webinars will start with the US-orient information session on 21 September 2010. The webinar will be at 1:00pm (Eastern Daylight Time) and will discuss international […]