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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
Get more energy out of conventional solar cells, thanks to cheap organics
A new kind of energy transfer from organic to inorganic semiconductors has been discovered which paves the way for boosting the efficiency of widely used inorganic solar cells with the help of a cheap organic coating. The research team who made the discovery have published their findings in Nature Materials in an article on which […]
Book on Nazis and Islam scoops Fraenkel Prize
A Gates Cambridge alumnus has been awarded one of the most prestigious prizes in contemporary European history. David Motadel [2006], who finished his PhD in History in 2010, has won The Fraenkel Prize for his book manuscript, Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. The book, which will be published by Harvard University Press later this month, […]
Understanding the bushmeat market: why do people risk infection from bat meat?
Ebola, as with many emerging infections, is likely to have arisen due to man’s interaction with wild animals – most likely the practice of hunting and eating wild meat known as ‘bushmeat’. A team of researchers led by the University of Cambridge and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has surveyed almost six hundred people […]
Halting cancer in its tracks
New research which aims to uncover genetic strategies for fighting the growth of cancer cells that have spread from a tumour in the head and neck has been published in the journal Cell Reports this month. The research by Nathan Benaich [2010] is based on his PhD in Oncology, following an MPhil in Biological Science [Genetics]. […]
From researcher to entrepreneur
Tiffany Bogich has moved from being a researcher to co-founding a start-up which makes researchers life easier and the research process more dynamic. Tiffany’s company, Standard Analytics IO, specialises in tools to make science publishing more effective and she is currently in the process of raising a seed round, having gone through the most competitive […]
Scholar to premiere film on DNA origami
A Gates Cambridge Scholar will be showcasing a film on her research on DNA origami at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas this month. Kerstin Goepfrich [2013] has written and produced the film, DNA Origami: folding on the smallest scale, which will be premiered at the Arts Picturehouse on 20th October as part of the first […]
A wise elder speaks
I know many people say that the Gates Cambridge scholarship has been life changing, but I really mean it,” says Pete Manasantivongs [2001]. He was one of the first intake of Gates Cambridge Scholars in 2001 and played a role in shaping what it has become and so significant was the impact of Gates on […]
Prize recognises work on 19th century Latin American musician
A Gates Cambridge Scholar has won a prestigious international prize for musicological studies for his work in bringing back to life an early 19th century piece of Peruvian-Bolivian music which shows how composers united European and local influences. José Izquierdo [2013] has scooped the first ever Prêmio Ruspoli in Euro-Latin American musicological studies. The prize, […]
Reporting the world
When Justine Drennan arrived in Phnom Penh, she had little experience of journalism. Her time at Cambridge where she did a master’s in international relations had, however, given her a good understanding of international organisations – something that came in handy in a city which has the second largest number of NGOs per capita in […]
Humans not responsible for chimp aggression
Chimpanzee aggression is not the result of interaction with humans and is something they naturally do, according to a new study co-authored by a former Gates Cambridge Scholar. The new study looks at decades of data from chimpanzees and their close relatives, bonobos (also called pygmy chimpanzees) and contradicts the theory which has emerged since […]
