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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
Deer culls not the only answer
Culling deer will not aid woodland conservation in the absence of other factors, according to a new study by three researchers, including two Gates Cambridge alumni. The research in the Scottish Highlands, published in Ecology and Evolution, looks at the threat posed by high deer populations to woodlands and grasslands. The study suggests that deer […]
Keeping the peace
Since leaving Cambridge just two years ago, Ian Ralby has been involved in developing international standards for private security companies, advising various governments on international law and setting up his own international advisory group to counsel governments on strategic defence and security matters, tackling challenges from non-traditional angles in order to resolve tensions before they […]
Global Impact Challenge
An international development organisation whose trustees include a Gates Cambridge Alumna and the former Provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust has won a major award from Google. Google announced on Monday that Integrity Action had won its £500,000 Global Impact Award, voted for by the public. It was among 10 finalists in Google’s Global Impact […]
Questions at the end of life
Are doctors unnecessarily doing their patients harm when they resuscitate them? End of life issues will form the basis of a talk by Gates Cambridge Scholar Liz Dzeng at a special Internal Symposium this week which spans subjects including genetic links to cancer, the historical roots of tension between China and India and widening access […]
Protecting the heart
Scientists led by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and University of Cambridge have developed a new drug that could help reduce the tissue damage that occurs following a heart attack, stroke or major surgery. Tests in mice have shown that the compound, called MitoSNO, protects heart tissue from reperfusion injury, which occurs when blood flow […]
Sustainable building in the US
Over the last decade, real-estate industry professionals in the US have become increasingly aware that construction and operation practices for buildings need to be re-imagined to reduce the impact of the built environment on the natural world. Thorough scientific research around the world has confirmed that climate change is occurring and greenhouse gases emitted by […]
Potential for success
Anthony Hylick [2005] says being at the University of Cambridge literally changed his life and now he wants to help others fulfill their potential. To that end he has published a book with his former college room-mates which aims to motivate young people to follow their passions. He has also formed an organisation whose aim […]
Imperial Gothic
A groundbreaking book on the global reach and influence of the Gothic Revival movement in architecture and its close links with 18th- and 19th-century British cultural politics has been published by a Gates Cambridge alumnus. In his new book Imperial Gothic, Alex [George] Bremner, now a senior lecturer in architectural history at the University of […]
Scholars tell their stories
Teach for America, running a B & B, dancesport and an open source movement to provide light to poor households form part of a session of stories about Gates Cambridge Scholars this week. Rebecca Berrens [2012], who is doing a PhD in Biological Sciences focused on epigenetic reprogramming in mammalian development, will talk about her […]
Scholar speaks at House of Commons
A Gates Cambridge Scholar spoke about his research on Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood at the House of Commons this week. Raphael Lefevre [2012], a research associate at the Center for the Study of the International Relations of the Middle East and North Africa where he specializes on political Islam in Lebanon and Syria, is the author […]
