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Benjamin Cocanougher
- Alumni
- United States
- 2016 PhD Zoology
- St Catharine's College
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.
Previous Education
Centre College
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Latest News
Scholar co-stars in comedy sketch show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
A late-night comedy parodying Ed Sheeran’s rise to stardom, co-starring, co-written and co-directed by Gates Cambridge Scholar Alex Mentzel, is premiering at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Accompanied by a glittering live band and fresh from a sold-out London run, Ed: the new, totally unofficial, ginger-inclusive parody sketch show plays 4-19 August at ZOO Playground. […]
Towards a Netflix for cancer treatment
The aim of Ping Lin Yeap’s research is to “create a Netflix for cancer treatment”, he says. By that he means that he wants to personalise cancer treatment, ensuring that it is able to adapt a patient’s radiotherapy plan based on how their anatomy changes on any given day. Cancer can lead to weight loss […]
Scholar captains University Challenge team
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is the captain of a University Challenge team which will feature in the new BBC series that airs from next week. Ryan Kang [2022] is captaining the Trinity College team on the first episode of the new series of the long-standing university quiz, which first aired in 1962. This season Amol […]
Study sheds new light on enigmatic ancient snake
Paleontologists have moved a step closer to understanding the life of an enigmatic ancient snake that roamed South America between 16 to 5 million years ago, a geologic epoch known as Middle to Late Miocene. Colombophis, which means “snake of Colombia” in Greek, is an extinct genus of snakes closely related to extant American pipe […]
How print revitalised the works of Geoffrey Chaucer
The first extended study of the reception of Chaucer’s medieval manuscripts in the early modern period offers a fascinating historical precedent for how the move from traditional to digital books can accommodate the new while revitalising the old. The book, Chaucer’s Early Modern Readers: Reception in Print and Manuscript, by Gates Cambridge Scholar Devani Singh […]
Making arbitration work better
When he was studying law, Leonardo Souza-McMurtrie discovered arbitration. He took to it immediately and could see the possibilities it presented in his home town of Manaus where it was virtually unheard of despite offering huge benefits to companies. He set up an NGO, while still a student, to persuade companies and law firms of […]
Questioning the anti-FGM movement
In 2012, in her first year at university Mamasa Camara set up a women’s health conference in the Gambia to create a space for women to talk about the issues that mattered to them and to hear their views on female genital cutting. Since then she has seen how the global campaign against female genital […]
Alumni weekend hears of Gates Cambridge impact
Six lightning talks on subjects ranging from crop science to anti-microbial resistance and energy policy formed a key part of the Gates Cambridge Alumni event that took place in Cambridge in early June. The talks were part of three days of activities, including a fireside chat with Provost Eilís Ferran, in the UK and were […]
The process of history-making
Olin Moctezuma-Burns [2020] is keen not to repeat the patterns of some past researchers and to give back to the communities she studies. For that reason she recently co-organised an international gathering of Imagining Futures projects on archiving indigenous and traditional knowledges in Sotuta, Yucatan. The meeting brought together people from Colombia, Peru, Kenya, Tanzania, […]
How might extreme heat contribute to human migration?
Rising temperatures due to climate change are likely influencing human migration patterns, according to a new study co-authored by Gates Cambridge Scholar Dr Kim van Daalen [2018]. The study, led by Rita Issa of University College London, is published today in the open-access journal PLOS Climate. It looks at the role of heat in human […]
