Carroll lab
Meet the Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Bernadette Carroll
My interest in molecular cell biology first began during my PhD at Imperial College London. I moved on to a postdoctoral position at Newcastle University with Viktor Korolchuk where I focused on the regulation of nutrient sensing pathways, particularly mTORC1 and autophagy. Both processes are intimately linked with cellular and organismal ageing and we set out to explore how they become dysregulated as we age. One of the key discoveries we made was that mTORC1 signalling becomes unresponsive to nutrients in cellular senescence. I set up my lab at the University of Bristol to try and understand the mechanisms driving these changes. I started in Bristol initially as a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, and subsequently as a Sir Henry Dale Fellow, funded by Wellcome Trust and The Royal Society. The lab has now expanded and we have various projects focused on the cell biology of nutrient responsive pathways.
Senior Reseach Associate
Dr Rachel Curnock
I’m Rachel and I’m a research associate and my project is focused on understanding misregulation of nutrient sensing and lysosomal dysfunction in senescence. My background is in membrane trafficking and endosomal biology and I’m particularly interested in understanding how endosomal trafficking and the endolysosomal system is altered in senescence. In particular, I would like to elucidate how senescent lysosomes differ to those in healthy proliferating cells and how this is contributing to senescence phenotypes. I am employing a wide range of techniques to address these questions and I am keen to find novel and exciting methods which might help us better understand senescence in the Carroll lab.
Research Associate
Dr Nafsika Chala
I joined the Carroll lab as a Research Associate in February 2024 to investigate the regulation of mTORC1 activity in the focal adhesions.
I did my PhD in ETH Zurich in the field of mechanobiology, with part of my research focused on endothelial senescence. My first degree was a 5-year diploma in mechanical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece and my diploma thesis was in the field of bioinformatics.
PhD Student
Katy Yalci
I did my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of Bristol, and now I am a PhD student in the Carroll lab.
My project investigates the regulation of mTORC1 by identifying new interactors of its inhibitor the TSC complex via proteomic screens, as many open questions remain around the localisation and regulation of this complex. Additionally, I have also been investigating new functions for an uncharacterised protein implicated in growth.
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PhD Student
Phineas Smith
I am a PhD student in molecular cell biology, focusing on senescence in the skin. In particular, how the dysregulation of lysosome content in senescent cells supports their phenotype and drives a decline in tissue function with age. I have been in Bristol since my undergraduate degree, and I chose to do my PhD project in the Carroll Lab based on an internship I did with the lab in 2021. Aside from being in the lab, I love to swim with Out to Swim, a club based in Bristol.​
PhD Student
Amir Khan
I'm Amir - working on senescence in healthy ageing and osteoarthritis in fish models. Currently utilising techniques such as confocal microscopy with WT and transgenic mutant zebrafish, I plan on also using basic molecular biology techniques, such as qPCRs and western blotting, as well as doing proteomics and genomics to further understand senescence in young vs old and healthy vs diseased states. My past undergraduate and postgraduate studies from Birmingham and Oxford consisted heavily of immunology and biochemistry. When I'm able to get free time from the lab, you'll catch me at the gym or travelling and exploring new places across the world!
PhD Student
Rabia Sevil
I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020 with a degree in Physiological Sciences. I then returned to Bristol in 2022 to complete my MRes in the Hammond Lab where I explored the role of tnf-alpha in skeletal regeneration using zebrafish as a model organism. I started my PhD in 2023 where I now work between the Hammond and Carroll labs to explore the relationship between senescence, inflammation, and musculoskeletal repair and regeneration. Outside the lab I can be found in the pottery studio or doing fun aerial circus things.
PhD Student
Alice Hayward-Wills
I’m Alice, a PhD student in the Carroll lab. I’m supported by the Wellcome Trust as part of the Dynamic Molecular Cell Biology programme at Bristol and initially rotated in the Carroll lab for a few months in my first year. My PhD project will interrogate lipophagy, the turnover of lipid droplets (LD) by selective autophagy. I will use a combination of biochemical techniques to characterise LD biology and identify receptors implicated in lipophagy. I completed my Integrated Master’s degree in Biology at the University of Warwick in 2024 and took a particular interest in molecular cell biology after my first stint in a research lab. Outside the lab I love baking and tending to my houseplants.
Students
Amelia Trinder (4th year)​​
Lucy Key (3rd year)
Past members
Dr Beth Dean
PhD Student
Guanghao Cai
MRes Student
Students
Zahraa Omran (4th year)
Tomas Andrews (3rd year)