Associate Scientist
Education:
Ph.D., 1997, University of Georgia
Biography
Dr. James A. Carroll earned his Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Georgia from the Department of Microbiology, studying virulence-associated membrane proteins expressed by Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), NIAID, NIH investigating the environmental cues that influence gene regulation and virulence determinants in Borrelia burgdorferi, he joined the faculty of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an assistant professor in 2002. In late 2009, he was recruited back to RML to develop proteomics approaches in the search for additional biomarkers in prion diseases. Later, he branched out into transcriptomics to better assess the role of glia cells and neuroinflammation in the process of neurodegeneration that occurs in the late phase of prion infection. For his contributions to the Borrelia burgdorferi field, he received two awards from the Centers for Disease Control in 2011 (the James H. Nakano Citation and the Charles C. Shepard Science Award), and he was awarded the title of associate scientist in recognition of exceptional achievements in prion research as an investigator at the NIAID Division of Intramural Research.