Lab Members

Dr. Steven Carroll is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where he holds the Gordon R. Hennigar, Jr., MD, Endowed Chair in Pathology. Dr. Carroll also serves as the System Chief of the MUSC Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Integrated Center of Clinical Excellence (ICCE), the Director of the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Neuropathology Laboratory (Brain Bank) and the Director of the Hollings Cancer Center Biorepository & Tissue Analysis Shared Resource. Dr. Carroll is a practicing neuropathologist certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology. Dr. Carroll has over 25 years of experience as a molecular neurobiologist using human tissues, genetically engineered mouse models and genomic analyses to investigate the molecular basis of diseases of the human nervous system. Dr. Carroll is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Pathology and the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology and serves on the Editorial Board of Neuro-Oncology. Dr. Carroll, in partnership with the Children's Tumor Foundation, has established a national network that collects and banks tissues from patients with neurofibromatosis type a (NF1), NF2 or schwannomatosis. Dr. Carroll is also a founding member of the Down Syndrome Biobank Consortium, an international consortium that banks brain tissue and other biospecimens from patients that have Down syndrome-associated Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Carroll received his B.S. degree with majors in vertebrate zoology, chemistry and archeology from the University of Memphis in 1981. He then attended Baylor College of Medicine, receiving his Ph.D. in Cell Biology in 1986 and his M.D. in 1988. Dr. Carroll's dissertation research was performed in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Schwartz and focused on the structure and genetic regulation of the chicken α-smooth muscle actin gene, which is essential for vascular function. Dr. Carroll's Anatomic Pathology Residency and Neuropathology Fellowship were performed at the Washington University School of Medicine (1988-1994). Dr. Carroll also completed his postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Milbrandt before joining the faculty of the Washington University School of Medicine. Prior to his arrival at MUSC, Dr. Carroll was Professor of Pathology, Neurobiology and Cell Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Director of the UAB Division of Neuropathology. While at UAB, Dr. Carroll served as an attending neuropathologist at the University of Alabama Hospital, the Birmingham VA, UAB Highlands Hospital and Alabama Children's Hospital. He was a Scientist in the UAB Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the Mental Retardation Research Center, the Center for Aging, the Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, the Civitan International Research Center and the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics as well as being as a Member of the Comprehensive Neuroscience Center and a Senior Scientist in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Carroll and his wife Pam have two daughters, Heather and Kristen, and three granddaughters, Charlotte, Sophia and Alice. They share their home with three furballs: Sarge, who is an American foxhound, Ringo the basset hound and their cat, Mr. Bosley. Dr. Carroll is an amateur paleontologist although, sadly, he doesn't get many opportunities to fossil hunt these days.

Dr. Carroll's granddaughters: Sophia, Charlotte, and Alice.

Dr. Carroll's dog, Sarge.

Dr. Carroll's dog, Ringo.

Jody Fromm Longo, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She is also the Graduate School Coordinator for the Department. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN where her undergraduate work focused on the initial stages of developing new devices for disposable sangar sequencing using a miniature DNA sequencing gels for rapid analysis in the laboratory of Arnold Stein (Patent US5759375A).

Dr. Longo then attended University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA where she earned her PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Her doctoral dissertation focused on defining how wild type and mutant Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTK) employ distinct transcription factors to differentially regulate signaling pathways to promote Ras-driven cancers.

She then decided to travel to the opposite side of the country from Los Angeles, CA to Boston, MA to continue her studies in Ras-driven cancers with Dr. Karen Cichowski in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Dana Farber Cancer Institute as a postdoctoral scholar. There her work focused on loss of the tumor suppressor neurofibromin, NF1, a negative regulator of Ras signaling. She used tumor derived cell lines and a sarcoma animal model that developed malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) for her therapeutic and preclinical studies.

Following her postdoctoral training Dr. Longo moved to Charleston, SC to continue her research efforts in RTKs and NF1 signaling in tumor animal models as a staff scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Carroll at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She then join MUSC as a faculty member in 2022 where she focuses on the specific roles of distinct NF1 isoforms in the brain and their unique contribution to cancer and dementia.

Dorea Jenkins, PhD is a Postdoctoral Researcher and the Laboratory Manager in the Carroll laboratory. She earned a Bachelor of Science with a major in biology and minor in chemistry from Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC in 2008. She also earned a Master of Biotechnology from Claflin University in 2010. Following her Masters, Dorea moved to Charleston and entered the Biomedical Sciences Program at MUSC where she earned her PhD in Cardiovascular Biology in the laboratory of Dhandapani Kuppusamy in 2016. Her doctoral dissertation focused on understanding mechanisms behind cardiac cell survival and fibrosis associated with persistent cardiac ventricular pressure overload.

Following her graduate work, Dorea worked with Dr. Robin Muise-Helmericks from 2016-2019, while there her focus was on the role of AKT3 in mitochondrial homeostasis and angiogenesis. She joined the Caroll lab in 2019, composing animal protocols, animal handling/experimentation, maintaining inventory, budget management, ordering and preparing for and conducting all laboratory inspections, etc. Her research interests are centered on understanding the impact of the secretome (chemokines, cytokines) and on the tumor microenvironment and immune cell recruitment in plexiform neurofibromas and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs).

Dorea and her husband, David, have a son Davion. She enjoys cartoons as well as Sci Fi and True Crime television shows, podcasts and books!

Carly Mitchell is a Research Specialist in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). She graduated from The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA in the Spring of 2024, with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a minor in psychology. Her interest in research stems from her fascination with rare diseases, which began in high school where, in her free time, she would look up and read about rare disorders and diseases and write summaries about their symptoms and causes. Since then, she has taken multiple biology and chemistry courses that include important content applicable to lab work and continues to hone her experimental techniques in the Carroll lab. After gaining a couple of years of hands-on experience in a research lab, she intends to apply to Ph.D. programs, to further her education and advance her research career. In addition to her job, Carly enjoys dancing, making origami sculptures, and cooking food.