A group of young women in lab coats on McKeldin Mall

Profile photo of Sean Carroll
Contact Info
Phone: 301.405.1952
Lab: 2229 Bioscience Research Bldg
Alt Email: carrolls@hhmi.org
Sean Carroll
Distinguished University Professor
Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair
Vice President for Science Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Research Interests 

The origin of novelty is one of the central questions of evolution. We seek to understand, in general, the relative contributions of different mechanisms – gene co-option, gene duplication and loss, regulatory and protein sequence changes – to the evolution of different kinds of traits. Our research has focused on the evolution of morphological traits in animals, and more recently, on biochemical novelties such as the evolution of snake venom. 

Recent Books

  • Carroll, S.B. (2020) A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You. Princeton University Press.

  • Carroll, S.B. (2016) The Serengeti Rules: The quest to discover how life works and why it matters. Princeton University Press.

  • Carroll, S.B. (2013) Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize. 

All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Yanai I,Bogler O,Carroll SB,Couch J,Dahlberg ML,Fuhrmann CN,Kaufman JC,Majumdar S,Oyler-Yaniv J,Priestley RD,Stearns T,Stern B,Vinson V,Yamamoto KR,Lercher MJ
Teach creativity in science higher education.
Science. 2024 Aug 23;385(6711):837. doi: 10.1126/science.adr4539. Epub 2024 Aug 22
Ukken FP,Dowell NL,Hajra M,Carroll SB
A novel broad spectrum venom metalloproteinase autoinhibitor in the rattlesnake Crotalus atrox evolved via a shift in paralog function.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Dec 20;119(51):e2214880119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2214880119. Epub 2022 Dec 12
Giorgianni MW,Dowell NL,Griffin S,Kassner VA,Selegue JE,Carroll SB
The origin and diversification of a novel protein family in venomous snakes.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 May 19;117(20):10911-10920. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1920011117. Epub 2020 May 4
Loehlin DW,Ames JR,Vaccaro K,Carroll SB
A major role for noncoding regulatory mutations in the evolution of enzyme activity.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Jun 18;116(25):12383-12389. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1904071116. Epub 2019 May 31
Finet C,Slavik K,Pu J,Carroll SB,Chung H
Birth-and-Death Evolution of the Fatty Acyl-CoA Reductase (FAR) Gene Family and Diversification of Cuticular Hydrocarbon Synthesis in Drosophila.
Genome Biol Evol. 2019 Jun 1;11(6):1541-1551. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evz094. Epub
Dowell NL,Giorgianni MW,Griffin S,Kassner VA,Selegue JE,Sanchez EE,Carroll SB
Extremely Divergent Haplotypes in Two Toxin Gene Complexes Encode Alternative Venom Types within Rattlesnake Species.
Curr Biol. 2018 Apr 2;28(7):1016-1026.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.02.031. Epub 2018 Mar 22