Jeffrey Bryan Carroll is an American scientific researcher in the field of

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is a neurodegenerative disease that is mostly inherited. The earliest symptoms are often subtle problems with mood or mental abilities. A general lack of coordination and an uns ...

(HD). As a carrier of the abnormal gene that causes HD, he is also a public advocate for families affected by the disease, and co-founder of the HD research news platform HDBuzz. His life and work were the subject of a 2011 Gemini award-nominated CBC documentary feature. Carroll is an Associate Professor of

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

in the Department of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...

Early life and family history

Born in Seattle on August 18, 1977 to parents Cindy and Jim, Carroll is one of six siblings. He joined the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in 1998, serving in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

. While serving in the army, Carroll's mother was diagnosed as suffering from

(HD), a fatal, incurable, genetically inherited neurodegenerative illness. Learning that he and his siblings were each at 50% risk of having inherited the genetic abnormality that causes HD, and having no scientific background, Carroll enrolled in an Army-sponsored basic biology course, initiating a career as a

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial ...

. Carroll underwent genetic testing for

in 2003 and received a positive result, indicating that he will succumb to the disease at some time, unless effective treatments are found.

Scientific career

On leaving the US Army in 2001, Carroll joined an undergraduate biology program at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, followed by a doctoral program in UBC's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics in the laboratory of Dr Michael Hayden. Carroll gained a PhD in 2010 for his research into Huntington's disease, including work on the YAC128 HD

mouse model A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the working ...

, the role of

caspase 6 Caspase-6 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''CASP6'' gene. ''CASP6'' orthologs have been identified in numerous mammals for which complete genome data are available. Unique orthologs are also present in birds, lizards, lissamphibia ...

in HD, genetic variation in the human HD gene and the potential of

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chro ...

-specific

gene silencing Gene silencing is the regulation of gene expression in a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. Gene silencing can occur during either transcription or translation and is often used in research. In particular, methods used to silence ge ...

using

antisense oligonucleotide Oligonucleotides are short DNA or RNA molecules, oligomers, that have a wide range of applications in genetic testing, research, and forensics. Commonly made in the laboratory by solid-phase chemical synthesis, these small bits of nucleic acids ...

s as a treatment for the condition. As a postdoctoral researcher, Carroll worked in the laboratory of Dr Marcy MacDonald at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

on metabolic abnormalities in Huntington's disease before moving to

in 2011 where he is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychology and continues to conduct research into Huntington's disease.

Huntington's disease advocacy

As a carrier of the gene that inevitably causes the fatal condition that forms the subject of his scientific research, Carroll is a frequent speaker at scientific and patient conferences and congresses, on issues relating to living at risk of HD, the mutual interdependence of science and patient communities,

preimplantation genetic diagnosis Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD or PIGD) is the genetic profiling of embryos prior to implantation (as a form of embryo profiling), and sometimes even of oocytes prior to fertilization. PGD is considered in a similar fashion to prenatal ...

and the controversial issue of predictive genetic testing for HD. He delivered keynote addresses at the 2009 World Congress on Huntington's Disease in Vancouver and the 2010 Annual Convention of the

Huntington's Disease Society of America The Huntington's Disease Society of America is a US non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by Huntington's disease, an incurable, genetically transmitted degenerative disease of the nervous system that affect ...

. Carroll is also a prominent scientific educator and an advocate for accessible education of the public by scientists. In an editorial in the scientific journal Trends in Molecular Medicine, he argued that "accurately communicating research to the affected community is a moral obligation of the scientific community ... a work of science isn't complete until this has been done." Alongside clinical researcher Dr Ed Wild and Emmy award-winning journalist and HD patient advocate

Charles Sabine Charles Edward Sabine (born 20 April 1960, British Army Battalion HQ, Rinteln Rinteln () is a small town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the banks of the Weser river above the Porta Westfalica. The town of Rinteln is in the broad v ...

, Carroll has delivered plain-language digests of research news for patients and family members at major scientific conferences, including the 2009 and 2011 World Congresses on Huntington's Disease in

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

, and the 2010 European Huntington's Disease Network Annual Congress. In 2010, Carroll's life, work and family were the subject of an episode of the

CBC News Network CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...

documentary '' Connect with Mark Kelley'', entitled "Fighting Huntington's disease". The episode was nominated for a Gemini Award for 'Best Lifestyle/Practical Information Segment'. In 2011, with financial support from the national Huntington's disease lay organizations of the US, Canada, England & Wales, Scotland and Germany, Carroll and Wild co-founded HDBuzz, an online source of accessible news about Huntington's disease research, written by scientists. HDBuzz was awarded the HD Association of Northern Ireland's 2011 Award for Scientific Communication and the 2012 Michael Wright Community Development Award from the Huntington Society of Canada. HDBuzz was the subject of an article in the scientific journal ''

Trends in Molecular Medicine A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short-l ...

'' in October 2011 entitled 'HDBuzz: empowering patients through accessible education'. Carroll's life, family and research were the subject of the 2012 documentary feature film ''Do You Really Want to Know?'', directed by

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning Canadian film maker

John Zaritsky John Zaritsky (13 July 1943 – 30 March 2022) was a Canadian documentarian/filmmaker. His work has been broadcast in 35 countries and screened at more than 40 film festivals around the world; in 1983, his film ''Just Another Missing Kid'' w ...

and screened at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. The film won several awards, including Best Documentary at the 2012 Okanagan Film Festival, Best Science / Medicine Technology Documentary and Best Non-fiction Director at the 2012

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

and Best Science / Technology Film at the 2012 Columbus International Film Festival. Carroll was also the subject of a November 2012 feature on CBC radio show '' DNTO''. Along with HDBuzz co-founder Dr Ed Wild, Carroll received the 2012 Michael Wright Community Development Award from the Huntington Society of Canada.

Family life

Carroll lives in

Bellingham, Washington Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (loc ...

with his wife Megan and two children, Raven and Elijah (born June 27, 2006), non-identical twins born through

in-vitro fertilization In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) ...

using

pre-implantation genetic diagnosis Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD or PIGD) is the genetic profiling of embryos prior to implantation (as a form of embryo profiling), and sometimes even of oocytes prior to fertilization. PGD is considered in a similar fashion to prena ...

to ensure that they did not inherit a risk of Huntington's disease.

References

External links

HDBuzz, Carroll's Huntington's disease research news platform

Carroll Lab - Western Washington University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Jeff Huntington's disease American neuroscientists Living people Harvard University alumni University of British Columbia Faculty of Science alumni 1977 births Western Washington University faculty Scientists from Bellingham, Washington Academics from Bellingham, Washington