Judith E. Carroll, PhD

Dr. Judith Carroll's research asks how behavioral and psychosocial factors like insomnia, depression, anxiety and stress may operate at the system and cellular level to affect the biological aging process and influence disease vulnerability including cancer, cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases of aging. Carroll was recently awarded an American Cancer Society Research Scholars grant to begin to examine the biobehavioral influences, including insomnia and depression, on accelerated biological aging in breast cancer survivors. Results from this work will have implications for predicting cancer and non-cancer outcomes, and help guide the health care and prevention of aging-related physical symptoms in breast cancer survivors by addressing the potential influences of insomnia and depression.

Carroll JE, Cole SW, Seeman TE, Breen EC, Witarama T, Arevalo JM, Ma J, Irwin MR. Partial sleep deprivation activates the DNA damage response (DDR) and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) in aged adult humans. Brain Behav Immun. 2015 Aug 31. pii: S0889-1591(15)30008-8. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2015.08.024. [Epub ahead of print]