Carol A. Carter

Carol A. Carter is an American microbiologist. She is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Early life and education Carter grew up in Harlem with parents who stressed the importance of education, though they had only a seventh grade education. Carter's interest in becoming a scientist was encouraged by a grade school teacher who gave her a book about inventors. She earned her undergraduate degree from City College of New York a strategy also used by poliovirus.

Carter investigated the mechanisms of HIV capsid particle assembly. Mentoring biochemist Lorna Ehrlich, the two helped demonstrate that recombinant HIV-1 p24 capsid protein could oligomerize in vitro. Together with X-ray crystallographer Michael Rossmann, and NMR spectroscopists Mike Summers and Wes Sundquist, Carter solved the structure of the p24 capsid protein. Carter and her trainees Fadila Bouamr, Traci LaGrassa, Lynn VerPlank, Jay Goff and Gisselle Medina established how Tsg101-Gag interactions lead HIV to escape degradation, undergo budding, and effect particle assembly and release. Carter identified how Tsg101 recruits calcium signaling machinery to endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT), thus stabilizing viral assembly at the budding site. She continued working, with Jon Leis, to identify small molecules that target Tsg101 and other budding factors.

Awards Carter has received several awards: Stony Brook University Presidential Award for Promoting Diversity and Academic Excellence (2013) Suffolk County NY Martin Luther King, Jr Commission Public Service Award (2016) Long Island Innovator Award (2017) Election to the National Academy of Inventors (2020) David Derse Memorial Award in Retrovirology (2024)

Personal life Carter enjoys walking on the beach and hosting gatherings for her husband, son and extended family.