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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
From computer bugs to high altitude archaeology
Four Gates Cambridge Scholars will address the need for new approaches to migration history, how to understand computer bugs, how to address global food demand and high altitude archaeology at an internal symposium next week. The Scholars will present their research in these areas at the symposium, which takes place in the Gates Cambridge Scholars […]
A tradition under threat
When Tala Jarjour was thinking about a topic for her PhD on sacred Christian music in the Middle East she spoke to a bishop about where she should focus her research. He suggested the church in Mosul, his home church. Mosul had a good music tradition which had not been studied much. The Iraq War […]
Scholar named in top 100 global AIDS campaigners
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been named one of the top 100 AIDS advocates in the world. Amirah Sequeira [2014] was named one of the Poz 100 list honorees by Poz Magazine, an award-winning US print and online brand for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS which has been publishing since 1994. This year’s […]
From the hospital to the lab
Lauren Zeitels has very personal reasons for trying to bridge the gap between medicine and research. Her grandmother developed dementia when she was younger. As an undergraduate in a laboratory studying neurodegenerative diseases she found that her fellow bench scientists often never had any direct experience with the human aspects of disease. “There was no […]
Top female entrepreneur to address Scholars
One of the world’s top 200 women entrepreneurs – and the top female entrepreneur in Canada for two years running – will be speaking at an event for Gates Cambridge Scholars next week. Entrepreneur, author and business coach Kelsey Ramsden will be talking about her book, Work/Life -Balancing Career, Kids, Cancer, & Chaos While Still […]
Prize for breastfeeding device that delivers life-saving medications
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been awarded a prestigious national engineering impact award for her work on a device which aims to deliver life-saving medications and nutrients to breastfeeding infants. Rebekah Scheuerle [2013], the newly elected President of the Gates Cambridge Scholars Council, has won a National Instruments (NI) Engineering Impact Award in the Biomedical […]
The time to act on climate change is now
Urgent action is needed to press for a reduction in carbon emissions ahead of next year’s UN climate summit in Paris, Dame Barbara Stocking told a packed audience at the first annual Gates Cambridge Lecture tonight. In a talk entitled Is there Enough for All of Us? Global Growth, Climate Change and Food Security, Dame […]
Five Scholars tell their stories
Surviving narcotrafficking in the Colombian jungle, moving from corporate law to academia, an adventure on the Trans-Siberian railway and growing up with siblings adopted from disadvantaged families in Chicago will form the basis of a Scholars’ Stories session next week. Five Gates Cambridge Scholars will tell their stories at the event on Thursday. Gustavo Nicolas […]
Researchers use simple chemicals to minimise organ damage following heart attack and stroke
Scientists have identified chemicals that could protect vital organs from long-term damage following a heart attack or stroke, according to a new study on which Gates Cambridge Alumnus Edward Chouchani is lead author. The researchers now hope the chemicals will provide a starting point for developing new injectable drugs that could be used to prevent […]
Poetry and conflict
Three Gates Cambridge Scholars have set up a new reading group which focuses on the role of poetry in conflict, looking at how ethics might relate to poetry. Poethics, which launched last week, will run weekly and is open to any scholar, regardless of their knowledge of poetry or politics. The group uses poetry to […]
