Jeff Carroll

Jeffrey Bryan Carroll is an American scientific researcher in the field of Huntington's disease (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 in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington

Early life and family history Born in Seattle on August 18, 1977, to parents Cindy and Jim, Carroll is one of six siblings. the role of caspase 6 in HD, genetic variation in the human HD gene and the potential of allele-specific gene silencing using antisense oligonucleotides as a treatment for the condition.

As a postdoctoral researcher, Carroll worked in the laboratory of Dr Marcy MacDonald at Harvard University on metabolic abnormalities in Huntington's disease before moving to Western Washington University 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 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. Trends in Molecular Medicine, 2011 and the 2010 Annual Convention of the Huntington's Disease Society of America. and 2011 World Congresses on Huntington's Disease in Vancouver and Prague, 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 documentary Connect with Mark Kelley, entitled "Fighting Huntington's disease". 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. 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 in October 2011 entitled 'HDBuzz: empowering patients through accessible education'. 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 Seattle, Washington with his wife Megan and two children, Billie and Elijah (born June 27, 2006), non-identical twins born through in-vitro fertilization using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to ensure that they did not inherit a risk of Huntington's disease.