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
The Gates Cambridge Class of 2023 made up of 77 outstanding new scholars has been officially announced. The Gates Cambridge scholarship programme is the University of Cambridge’s flagship international postgraduate […]
Jenna Armstrong is feeling a mixture of pure joy and relief. She is one of this year’s winning Cambridge women’s rowing team. The elation follows months of gruelling training every […]
“Can we print a functional intestine?” That was Josh Weygant’s first question when he saw how living cells were printed with a 3D printer. It was perhaps an oddly specific […]
Two Gates Cambridge Scholars have joined forces to correct a mistake that has persisted in classical scholarship for over 400 years. Daniel Hanigan [2019] and Grant Kynaston [2019] have just […]
People without college degrees perform better at entry-level MOOCs specifically designed to increase access to university enrolment, researchers have found. The study, The Promise of MOOCs Revisited? Demographics of Learners […]
Gates Cambridge Scholar Shadrack Frimpong has spoken on a panel chaired by former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at Clinton Global Initiative University. Shadrack participated in a session on 4th March […]
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has co-authored a book on how best to engage more men in gender equality. William McInerney is co-author of Das Buch, Das Jeder Mann Lesen Sollte: […]
How do you tell the story of climate science and why does it matter? These are questions that Sarah Dry [2003] is grappling with. In her work on the history […]
“Lani, are you guys still being paid?” I asked. Lani’s omnipresent smile froze on her face. Her eyes flicked back and forth as though scanning the empty room for people […]
Over a dozen Gates Cambridge scholars will showcase their research at this year’s Cambridge Festival. The Festival, which runs from 17th March to 2nd April, is one of the largest festivals […]