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.
Centre College
Research which could bring forward the prospect of commercial-scale growing of algae as an alternative to petroleum products has been published in the Journal of Rheology. Global concerns about rapidly […]
Sean Collins is used to straddling different cultures and disciplines. As a young boy he grew up in Germany, but moved to a German school in the US where the […]
Gates scholar Molly Fox has won a prestigious doctoral research award from the Association of British Turkish Academics. She won first place in the category of Biological and Medical Sciences for […]
One-letter switches in the DNA code occur much more frequently in human genomes than anticipated, but are often only found in one or a few individuals, according to new research […]
Gates Cambridge alumna Molly Crockett is taking part in a BBC World Service programme airing this Saturday on the degree to which our moral beliefs are shaped by our neurochemistry and […]
Liz Dzeng was working in a US hospital taking care of an 86-year-old woman dying of metastatic cancer. In line with the US health system, Liz, a doctor specialising in […]
The editor-in-chief of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet used his Gates Distinguished Lecture to issue a rallying call for scientists to work together to tackle insidious world problems, from […]
A trip in a dugout canoe to investigate the impact of fishing on a Pacific ecosystem, crossing country and subject borders, riding the rails with a “hobo” and volunteering at […]
Jakub Szamalek’s first book was published to acclaim last year and he is now working on a second. Although he is completing his PhD in Classics focusing on the relations […]
A mobile phone-based biometrics project which allows healthcare workers to collect and check patient information in the developing world has won two business innovation competitions. The Sim-Prints technology was designed […]