Steven McCarroll, PhD
Howard Hughes Medical Institute/Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Medical School
Steven McCarroll, PhD, and the scientists in his lab use human genetics, biological experiments and single-cell genomics to recognize and understand the ways in which genes and genetic variation sculpt the human brain’s functions and vulnerabilities. The lab develops new experimental and computational approaches to analyze brain tissue and genomic DNA, then applies them to try to understand brain function and disorders.
Scientists in the McCarroll lab invented the technology for droplet-based single-cell genomics (Drop-seq), discovered that the pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease results from somatic expansion of the disease-causing CAG repeat in the striatum and cerebral cortex. They also discovered clonal hematopoiesis, a common pre-cancerous condition in which the blood is populated with clones with specific somatic mutations. They discovered the contribution of the complement component 4 genes to schizophrenia and lupus and discovered SNAP, the close coordination of neuronal and astrocyte gene expression in the brain.
Dr. McCarroll is an HHMI investigator, an institute member of the Broad Institute, and the Flier Professor of Biomedical Science and Genetics at Harvard Medical School.