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
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander of Europe and Commander of United States European Command is to give a Gates Distinguished Lecture this month. The lecture will be at 6pm on 31 […]
Ian Wilmut, the famed Scottish biologist who created Dolly the cloned sheep, speaks as part of the Gates Distinguished Lecture Series.
Science – Facts and Frictions
Kathelijne Koops‘ research on chimpanzees has grabbed more headlines. Kathelijne’s most recent findings suggest that chimpanzees mourn the death of their own much like humans do. The co-authored article (PDF […]
PhD student Srilakshmi Raj is attempting to look at variation of diabetes and obesity genes among diverse ethnic groups in India. A Gates scholar at the University of Cambridge where […]
Nij has been working with the University’s Community Affairs team on their Rising Stars public engagement programme. In January 2010 he took part in a public event to promote Rising […]
Born in Iran, Irfan came to Pakistan when he was three and grew up in Lahore. His father, who was a postgraduate at Edinburgh and worked in hospitals in London, […]
Under the apartheid system, which ended in 1994 when Thabo was 10, white South African children received good quality schooling, while black children were given what was described as “Bantu […]
The two have just launched Stirr London, a forum bringing together investment bankers, politicians, non-governmental organisations, think tanks and scholars to address the major challenging issues of our time in […]
As a Gates scholar, she met brilliant students from all over the world who had different perspectives on many different things. This opened up her mind to new ways of […]