Michael Carroll
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
PCMM, Boston Children’s Hospital
Co-director, MMSc in Immunology, Harvard Medical School
Email: Michael.carroll@childrens.harvard.edu
Dr. Michael Carroll received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the UT Southwestern Medical School (Dallas, TX) under the direction of Dr. J. Donald Capra; subsequently, he trained with Dr. Rodney R. Porter in the Biochemistry Department, Oxford U (Oxford UK). In 1985, he was appointed an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He was promoted in 1998 to the rank of Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School and Senior Investigator, Boston Children’s Hospital, Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
Dr. Carroll served as Director of the Harvard Graduate Program in Immunology from 2005 – 2016. Early in his career, he was an American Arthritis Foundation Fellow and Investigator and later a recipient of a Pew Scholar award. He is a recipient of the 2016 Research Award by National Alliance for Mental Health.
A major focus of his research is understanding how autoreactive germinal centers are regulated; and how peripheral autoimmunity can affect neuropsychiatric behavior. Moreover, his research includes understanding how changes in the regulation of the complement system in the brain can underlie diseases such as schizophrenia.
Staff
Elisabeth Carroll
DPharm University Paul Sabatier Toulouse, France
Administrative assistant
Lab manager
Email: Elisabeth.carroll@childrens.harvard.edu
Postdoctoral Fellows
Yingying Zhang
PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Boston
Email: yingying.zhang@childrens.harvard.edu
By applying a newly developed technology called MERFISH (Multiplexed Error Robust Fluorescent in-situ Hybridization), I am interested in addressing the following questions: 1) which brain cell types express complement components? 2) where in the brain and when during development are they expressed? 3) how does C4 deficiency or C4 overexpression affect the transcriptional landscape in the mouse brain? The ultimate goal is to understand the role of C4 and the complement pathway during brain development and how mechanistically C4 overexpression can contribute to schizophrenia
Chunzhu Song
Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Vanderbilt University Nashville TN
Email: chunzhu.song@childrens.harvard.edu
I will focus on identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms of TFN-I-related synaptic elimination and behavior changes in the CNS of a lupus model.
Ajitanuj Rattan
PhD
Email:ajitanuj.rattan@childrens.harvard.edu
Generation of autoantibodies by auto reactive B cells is one of the major hallmarks of autoimmunity. Apoptotic cells are major source of autoantigens and inefficient clearance of apoptotic cells is central to activation of auto reactive B cells. I am interested in understanding the role of a newly identified complement receptor, NRP1 (CD304) in apoptotic cell clearance (immune complexes) and its implication in regulation of autoimmunity.
Kristine Oleinika
PhD in Immunology – University College London (UCL)
Email:kristine.oleinika@childrens.harvard.edu
Activated B cells can participate in the extrafollicular or the germinal center response, which differ in their functional output. I am interested in understanding the molecular cues and cellular interactions that guide B cell fate decisions following activation. It remains unclear to what extent overlap exists between pathways that contribute to autoimmunity and protective immunity (such as in response to infection or vaccination). Enhanced understanding of this may allow to design improved intervention strategies for autoimmunity.
Yi Dan (Danni) Zhu
PhD in Virology. Harvard University, Boston
Email: yidan.zhu@childrens.harvard.edu
I am interested in understanding the mechanisms behind persistent autoantibody production in SLE and how innate immune sensors regulate autoreactive memory B cell activity.
Evan Yang
PhD in Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard University, Boston
email: Evan.yang@childrens.harvard.edu
I am exploring B cell clonal trajectories and their consequences within peripheral and central nervous system tissues under healthy and autoimmune contexts.
Graduate students
Stacie Lin
MD/PhD student in Immunology, Harvard University, Boston
Email:stacie.lin@childrens.harvard.edu
I am interested in immune mediators localized to the meninges and blood brain barrier driving neurological manifestations in autoimmunity and infection.
Technicians
Diana Pascual
Animal Technician
Email:diana.pascual@childrens.harvard.edu
Students
Valerie Foley
Undergraduate student, Northeastern University, Boston
Email:valerie.foley@childrens.harvard.edu
Jonas Vinciutas
Master student Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Email:jonas.vinciutas@childrens.harvard.edu
Ariel Li
Master student Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Email: ariel.li@childrens.harvard.edu
In SLE mouse models, chronic interferon presence in the brain results in multiple cell patches expressing interferon stimulated genes. My project aims to uncover the possible mechanisms for neuropsychiatric symptoms of SLE such as anxiety and fatigue by characterizing the cellular heterogeneity and gene expression changes of cells in the patches through MERFISH.
Former Lab Members
Demani Fathallah PhD
Philip Katzman MD
Simon Shelley PhD
David Isenman PhD
Luigi Bergamaschini MD
Oretta Finco PhD
Jason Shohet MD
Michael Fischer PhD
Siggi Goerg PhD
Andrey Prodeus MD
Russell Reid PhD
Birgitta HeymanPhD
Pozdnyakova Olga MD
Admar Verschoor PhD
Mihaela Gadjeva PhD
Jennifer Gommerman PhD
Ramon Roozendaal PhD
Stefanos Tsiftsoglou PhD
Ming Zhang PhD
Jerome Jayasekera PhD
Marat Alimzhanov PhD
Rob Barrington PhD
Tom Schneider PhD
Yi Zheng PhD
Ama Agyemang MD/PhD
Isaac Chu PhD
Matt Woodruff PhD
Young-A Kim PhD
Michael Kuligoski PhD
Lisa Pitcher PhD
Santiago Gonzalez PhD
Mike Haas PhD
Melissa Turman PhD
Prya Chatterjee PhD
Kaysa Prokopec PhD
Caroline Herndon PhD
Blandine Mercier PhD
Nishant Dwivedi PhD
Joseph O’Flynn PhD
Esteban Fernandez PhD
Jessica Perego PhD
Balthasar Heesters PhD
Fahd Al Quresha
Dan Firl MD
Soren Degn PhD
Abhishek Das PhD
Jonatan Chang PhD
Jessy Presumey PhD
Cees van der Poel PhD
Lea Simoni PhD
Theo van den Broeck MD/PhD
Ernest Aw PhD
Carlos Castrillon PhD
Kristian Savstrup Kastberg
Siti Rahmayanti MD
Esra Yalcin PhD
Melis Yilmaz
Franziska Schuerpf
Kristian Savstrup Kastberg
Minghe Ma
Elliot Akama-Garren MD/PhD
Ha Lee
Yilin Guan
Alexia Correia-Ferreira
Selma Mouftakir
Finley Lord
Pranav Ayyappan