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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
Vaccinating against antibiotic resistance
A new study has shown for the first time exactly how a vaccination instructing the body to produce the intestinal antibody – known as secretory IgA – can protect against disease. IgA ‘enchains’ dividing bacteria to form clumps, making them unable to invade the wall of the intestine and infect the body. Because each enchained […]
Collaborating for gender equality in STEM
The Gates Cambridge Scholars’ Council is hosting the first Learning for Purpose Conference, Collaborating for Gender Equality in STEM, on 9th May. The event will be held at Murray Edwards College and aims to expand the Learning for Purpose Group’s reach and engage with the wider Cambridge community. Learning for Purpose is the original Gates […]
Promoting enterprise in Belo Horizonte
A Gates Cambridge Scholar and his supervisor have teamed up with a Brazilian NGO to win a prestigious grant to help low-income entrepreneurs living in the slums of Belo Horizonte. Paulo Savaget [2015] and his supervisor Professor Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, have won a highly competitive Newton Fund grant from the […]
Towards a smarter definition of intelligence
How can we tell whether an individual or species is using ‘intelligence’ or complex cognition to solve a problem? Combining evidence from flexible behaviours, neuroanatomy and unpredictable environments may give a more accurate idea, according to a new model developed by a multidisciplinary team. The study, Is behavioural flexiblity evidence of cognitive complexity? How evolution […]
From the lab bench to the patient’s bedside
Minaam Abbas has not yet started his PhD, but he is already co-founder of two businesses which have the potential to transform how we fund business and how we treat cancer. Minaam [2017], who will begin his PhD this autumn as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, is chief operating officer of angioClast, a company which aims to […]
Gates Cambridge Class of 2017 announced
Fifty-five of the most academically exceptional and socially committed people from across the globe have been selected as Gates Cambridge Scholars after interviews in Cambridge in late March. The Scholars will join the 35 US Scholars selected in late January to form the class of 2017, all of whom will take up the most prestigious […]
Dr Lauren Zeitels
It is with deepest regret that Gates Cambridge announces that Dr Lauren Zeitels, Co-Chair of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association (GCAA), tragically died in an avalanche while snowshoeing near Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Canada on 12 March 2017. Lauren was 32 years old and came to Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar in 2006 to read an […]
Simprints wins more honours
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Toby Norman is one of 17 social entrepreneurs from around the world to have been chosen for the award. Toby has been recognised for his role in Simprints, an organisation that uses fingerprinting to help […]
Standing up for Native Americans
Montana Duke Wilson was raised on politics. Growing up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, which is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes, his grandfather Ray K. Eder served on the Tribal Executive Board for 24 years. He also served as both Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Fort Peck Tribes, the head of […]
Medical ethics through the lens of history
A Gates Cambridge scholar has been selected for a prestigious fellowship which addresses contemporary medical ethics through a unique historical context. Yuntong Ma [2015], who did an MPhil in Sociology at Cambridge and is currently a fourth-year medical student at Washington University School of Medicine, was selected as one of the FASPE Medical Fellows for […]
