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
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been appointed a fellow at the prestigious Roosevelt Institute where he will lead a new programme on trade and global governance. Todd Tucker [2012], who […]
Sofia Singler [2016] attended extracurricular architecture classes in Finland from the age of 10. The experience has shaped her career so far and this autumn she begins a PhD in Architecture, […]
New research led by a Gates Cambridge Scholar details the experiences of the first 16 women with Type 1 diabetes to successfully use an “artificial pancreas” throughout their pregnancy and during […]
Are computer algorithms inherently sexist and if so what can be done about it? A research paper co-authored by a Gates Cambridge Scholar shows how data sets embed sexist assumptions […]
Mamasa Camara combines her research on female circumcision with a strong record of activism in women’s health in West Africa. During the summer following her freshman year at Spelman College, […]
Bill Gates welcomes attendees to the Gates Cambridge Biennial event, held in Cambridge, UK on 15 – 17 July 2016.
A Gates Cambridge Scholar who is setting up a school and medical centre in Zimbabwe for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS is calling for professional partners and volunteers. The Hope Academy […]
A keen interest in the socio-economic determinants of health has driven Miriam Alvarado’s research work from high school through her university years, leading to stints working on projects in India, […]
Scholars from a huge diversity of subjects are a vital resource for a world as it faces an increasing number of traumatic shocks, former BBC Diplomatic Correspondent Bridget Kendall told […]
Professor Barry Everitt, the Provost of Gates Cambridge, has been elected the new president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies at the 10th FENS Forum of Neuroscience in Copenhagen. His term […]