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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
Irina Bokova to deliver Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture
This year’s Gates Cambridge Annual Lecture will be given next month by Irina Bokova, the first female Director-General of UNESCO on the subject of protecting our cultural heritage. The Annual Lecture will take place on the evening of 27th February at St John’s College, Cambridge. Irina Bokova will speak about UNESCO’s work on cultural heritage which is […]
Alternative put forward for Planet Nine hypothesis
The strange orbits of some objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system, hypothesised by some astronomers to be shaped by an unknown ninth planet, can instead be explained by the combined gravitational force of small objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, say researchers. The alternative explanation to the so-called ‘Planet Nine’ hypothesis, put […]
Sight saving from a grassroots to a global level
When Tom Johnson was a medical student, he built a community organisation that provides free vision screenings and guaranteed follow-up medical and surgical care to people with little or no resources. That organisation, the Student Sight Savers Programme, has served hundreds of people over the past six years. Tom’s contribution was recently recognised when he […]
Taking on the World Marathon Challenge
Greg Nance [2011] did his first ultra marathon on the Jurassic coast in December 2011 while he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He has always been very athletic. Since he was a boy he has been doing open water swimming and has swum in a large variety of settings, from the […]
Investigating mobile elements in the mammalian genome
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded a prestigious fellowship at the University of Cambridge to carry out research into the role of mobile elements in the mammalian genome that can cause genetic diseases and cancer. Rebecca Berrens [2012] has been awarded the £300,000 Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship which provides her with four years of funding for independent research at Cambridge […]
Spider conservation
Michael Pashkevich didn’t like spiders when he was growing up, but at 11pm one night halfway into his undergraduate degree he found himself watching a golden orb weaver spider crawling up his arm. A researcher had asked him if he wanted to help with her research into spiders and had invited him on a nature […]
Award for feminist magazine
A feminist magazine co-edited by Gates Cambridge Scholar Marina Velickovic has won an award from the United Nations Population Fund in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The award from the UNFPA is bestowed on individuals and civil society organisations that oppose social stereotypes, eliminate prejudices against marginalised groups and, through various activities, make a significant contribution to the […]
Reading the Earth through its rocks
When she was a teenager, Marcela Gomez went to a book fair in Bogota with her father and sister. Her father, a chemistry professor, needed to buy some books for his class so took his daughters to the science section where Marcela found a book on stratigraphy, a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers and layering. […]
The future of UK foreign policy
A Gates Cambridge Scholar is taking part in an all-female panel discussion on the future of UK foreign policy at the Palace of Westminster tonight. Sharmila Parmanand is taking part in the Fabian International Policy Group event and responding to the inaugural Christmas Lecture given by former UN Deputy Secretary-General Lord Mark Malloch-Brown. Lord Malloch-Brown’s lecture will consider some of the big […]
Inoculating people against fake news
The events of 2016 have prompted a lot of reflection around the role of fake news in the votes in the UK and US, particularly attitudes to and manipulation of attitudes to immigration. Melisa Basol [2018] was just finishing her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Aberystwyth at the time. There she had […]
