People – Michael Carroll Lab

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.

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

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

Carlos Castrillon

PhD in Life Sciences from Universite Paris Diderot, France

Email: carlos.castrillon@childrens.harvard.edu

During the immune and autoimmune responses, B cells in the germinal center undergo clonal expansion, mutation and selection by interacting with stromal cells and T cells. Germinal center B cells are selected by their capacity to bind foreign or self-antigens.

I’m interested in studying how much of the diversity of germinal center B cells translates into effective memory B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells.

Esra Yalcin

PhD in Neuroscience from Istanbul Medipol University

Email: esra.yalcin@childrens.harvard.edu

My project is focused on understanding the effect of C4A copy number variation on schizophrenia development by correlating genetic analysis and synapse density analysis in a C4A humanized mouse model and postmortem brain tissue.

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.

Siti Rahmayanti

MD Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Email: siti.rahmayanti@childrens.harvard.edu

My project explores B cell primary immune responses within autoimmune environment through characterization of their intrafollicular (germinal center) vs. extrafollicular (plasma cells) compartments.

Graduate students

Yi Dan (Danni) Zhu

PhD student in Virology. Harvard University

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.

Chongyang Wu

Master Student, Immunology, Harvard University

Email: chongyang.wu@childrens.harvard.edu

My project is to elucidate the role of Complement C3 in brain development and complement regulation using multiplexed error-robust fluorescence in situ hybridization (MERFISH).