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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
Future connections
A Gates alumnus is one of a number of researchers involved in the largest India-UK ICT research collaboration into the communications of the future. The nine-university consortium includes the University of Cambridge and Cambridge-based Toshiba Research Laboratories Europe. It has just been awarded £10m funding from the UK Government, involves 200 scientists in the UK and […]
Language recovery
Brielle Stark’s uncle suffered a bad stroke in her first year at university. Indeed he still has no movement on his right hand side. “I observed that and saw the effect that his road to recovery had on my family,” she says. “It had a big impact on me.” Such a big impact that it […]
TB under the microscope
The chief medical officer of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline will give the keynote address at a conference dedicated to finding new ways to tackle diseases which disproportionately affect developing countries. The Cambridge Global Health Commercialization & Funding Roundtable has been organised by three Gates Cambridge scholars and two other students and takes place this Thursday and […]
The evolution of Alzheimer’s
Researchers have discovered the existence of a shared pathway through which multiple genes and their byproducts affect people’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. The research could be an important focus for future gene discovery and the development of targeted therapies to fight against Alzheimer’s. It has been published in the latest edition of The American […]
Moving out of the treetops
Some chimpanzees regularly sleep on the ground, offering new clues about the ancient transition of early hominins from sleeping in trees to sleeping on the ground, according to research by a Gates Cambridge alumna. The research by Kathelijne Koops [2006] on chimps in the Nimba mountains of Guinea, West Africa, found that 90 of the […]
50 new international Gates Cambridge scholars selected
Fifty Gates Cambridge Scholars from 23 countries have been selected to study at the University of Cambridge this October, including the first from the Caribbean island of Grenada. Competition for the Scholarships was intense. The 50 successful candidates were selected from a total pool of 4,500 applicants on the basis of their intellectual ability, leadership […]
Can progressive politics and profit co-exist?
How free are countries bound by international investment agreements to choose their own environmental policies if they interfere with future profit margins? Gates scholar elect Todd Tucker says international investment agreements have been around since the late 1950s, but have rarely been invoked. There were only two cases a year from the 1980s to 2000 […]
Overseas democrat
Gates Cambridge scholar Emily Jordan is taking part in her own US election in May and is hoping to win the chance to be a delegate at the Democrats’ national convention later this year. Emily, [2009] who is doing a PhD in Experimental Psychology, is taking part in the US Democratic primary taking place in […]
African dialogue
The Vice President of the Republic of Zambia will address the first conference of a new network which aims to bring together African universities, business students, entrepreneurs and business people. Dr Guy Scott, Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, will be the keynote speaker at the Cambridge Africa Business Network conference, Unlocking Value in […]
Fellowship powers solar energy research
The Australian Department of Energy has awarded a prestigious fellowship with the Australian Solar Institute to a Gates Cambridge scholar as part of its $5 billion Clean Energy Initiative. Niraj Lal will take up the three-year fellowship with the Australian Solar Institute [www.australiansolarinstitute.com.au]at the Australian National University later this year. The names of the recipients […]
