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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
Understanding cancerous mutations
New research has uncovered the mechanism underlying the development of cancer in people with mutations in a ‘caretaker’ protein. Gates Cambridge Alumnus Dr Anand Jeyasekharan’s research is published in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. Dr Jeyasekharan’s research is linked to studies he did during his post-doctoral fellowship in Professor Ashok Venkitaraman’s laboratory at […]
Bone health and HIV
What are the short and long-term effects of exposure to ante-retroviral drugs on the bones of HIV infected mothers and the children they give birth to who do not go on to be positive? Current scientific evidence shows that HIV infection, anti-retroviral drugs, pregnancy and lactation each independently reduce bone mineral density. However, there is […]
Lighting the city
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded a distinction prize at a prestigious international lighting design competition for her installation project which is designed to get people interacting with their cities. W. Victoria Lee was given the award at the 2013 Fondation Concept Lumière Urbaine (CLU) International Lighting Design Competition. Hers was among 119 projects […]
Gates Alumni event debates Middle East and sustainable cities
The first Gates Cambridge Alumni event to be livestreamed on Youtube debated two of the most pressing challenges of today – political ferment in the Middle East and the quest for sustainable cities. The event was part of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Weekend, which took place over the weekend and was organised by the Gates […]
From Dante’s irony to the future of painkillers
A joke made by Dante which was not understood for seven centuries, the changing face of biology, the future of painkillers, remote health monitoring devices, the burden of non-communicable disease in sub-Saharan Africa and Nazi doctors will be presented at this week’s Gates Cambridge internal symposium. The symposium, which takes place on Tuesday 22nd October, offers Gates Cambridge Scholars the […]
Growing up equal
Maria Pawlowska [2007] was all set on a career as a paleontologist- something she had set her heart on since she was a child – when she read Khalid Husseini’s searing novel A Thousand Splendid Suns about women living under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Reading the book was the culmination of a long-burning desire to […]
Alumni Weekend debates Arab Spring and sustainable cities
The Arab Spring and how to create sustainable cities are the focus of the first Gates Cambridge Alumni event to be webcast live this weekend. The Gates Cambridge Alumni Weekend, which takes place on 19 and 20 October, will feature University of Cambridge lecturers, Gates Cambridge Scholars and Alumni, external experts, Ian Black, the Guardian’s […]
Justice and trade
Recent rulings under international investment agreements should be examined for their impact on economic development, according to a new article by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. The UN Agency UNCTAD [UN Conference on Trade and Development] published an article this week by Gates Cambridge Scholar Todd Tucker on the relationship between domestic court rulings and international […]
Can neoliberalism and sustainability coexist?
Neoliberal policies which focus largely on economic growth often run counter to sustainable development and a new focus on economic policies which favour the poor is needed, according to a journal article co-authored by a Gates Cambridge Scholar. In the article, Can post-2015 sustainable development goals survive neoliberalism? A critical examination of the sustainable development–neoliberalism nexus […]
Women and Alzheimer’s
A Gates Cambridge Alumna will speak on the impact of women’s reproductive histories on their risk of Alzheimer’s at the annual Cambridge in America Day event in November. Molly Fox [2008] will speak about Darwinian Medicine and Alzheimer’s Disease at the Women in Science event in Silicon Valley on November 9th. Other speakers include Professor […]
