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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
From tooth fossils to drug resistant TB
The pros and cons of hydrogen fuel cells, reconstructing ancient diets through teeth fossils, making old buildings energy efficient and drug resistant TB are the subjects of this week’s Gates Cambridge internal symposium. The symposium offers Scholars the chance to present their research to their peers. It takes place from 7-9pm in the Gates Cambridge […]
Career choices
Gates Cambridge alumni with expertise in heritage and imperialism, the impact of public engagement and flu pandemic preparedness will talk about their different career paths at an alumni career symposium next week. The three alumni from the arts, social science and science will give their insights into and take questions on the challenges and opportunities […]
Drones film is catalyst for broad campaign
Gates Cambridge Scholar Jennifer Gibson will be involved in a Q & A about drone attacks at the screening of a film about the impact of such aggression next month. ‘Unmanned: America’s drone wars’ will be screened on 10 February and followed by a Q&A session with Jemima Khan (Co-executive producer), Robert Greenwald (Director) and […]
New method for mapping breast cancer
A new method of mapping transcription factor binding sites could help scientists understand the fundamental mechanisms by which someone contracts breast cancer. The research, conducted by Gates Cambridge Scholar Josh Cohen as part of a team of researchers at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, has just been published in the journal Genome Biology. It […]
Guinea election observation
Political parties and politicians in Guinea should take a series of measures to restore public faith in democratic processes and in particular avoid ‘political nomadism’ which undermines political representation as well as distrust in government, according to a report by EU election monitors published this week. The widely contested legislative elections that took place last […]
The hidden junk industry
American writer Adam Minter will be discussing the hidden world of globalised recycling at a Gates Conversation on Friday. Minter is author of Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade. As a freelance journalist, he has covered a range of topics for publications that include The Atlantic, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, The Los […]
Chinese entrepreneurs to visit Cambridge
Sixteen Chinese entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial students will come to Cambridge in February to attend an innovative short-term training course in enterpreneurial management and capital markets. The programme is the first of a series of short-term training courses and visits organised by Wedge Education, a company set up by Gates Cambridge Scholar Dr Xiaohan Pan. The […]
New cause of fatal disease discovered
Scientists have discovered that a rare and fatal disease which involves an inability to properly metabolise cholesterol and other lipids could have more than one cause and suggest that a two-pronged approach could have beneficial results. The research on the lipid storage disorder Niemann-Pick type C1 (NPC1) disease is published in the journal Cell Reports […]
Postnational identity in Latin America
What is the role of the Latin American writer today? In the 20th century, Mexican literature was heavily concerned with nation building, and narratives about national identity were manipulated by an authoritarian one-party political system. However, the turn of the century in Mexico brought about major sociopolitical transformations due to the neoliberal turn in Latin […]
Provost wins Fondation Ipsen prize
The Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust Professor Barry Everitt has been awarded the prestigious Fondation Ipsen Neuronal Plasticity Prize for 2014 for his research on the neuropsychology of drug addiction. The prize, created in 1990, is awarded to researchers in recognition of outstanding contributions in the field of neuronal plasticity, including development, synaptogenesis, aging, […]
