CV
Joshua T. Derrick
PhD Candidate Deparment of Biology Johns Hopkins University 3520 San Martin Rd, Baltimore 21218 jderric4@jh.edu
Positions
- Johns Hopkins University 2020-present, Biology Department (Graduate Student)
- Carnegie Institution 2021-2025, Embryology Dept, Baltimore (Graduate Student)
Education
- B.S. in Computational Biology and Creative Writing, 2020
- Passed Doctoral Candidacy Exam for Johns Hopkins CMDB Department, 2021
- Ph.D in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology, Johns Hopkins University, expected 2027
Awards and Honors
- F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (2025-2027)
- FASEB Intestinal Lipid Biology Best Poster Award (2023)
- Thomas Hunt Morgan Fellowship (2020)
- Takeda Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scholar (2019)
- USTFCCA All-Academic (2019)
- MIT Honor Roll (2016-2020)
Publications
- Derrick J. T., Deme P., Haughey M. Farber S.A, Ludington W.B.. PeakClimber: A software tool for analyzing biological HPLC data using the exponential Gaussian function. Journal of Chromatography B, 124721. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchromb.2025.124721 pending, PMID: 4062627
- Derrick, J. T., Moll, T. O. C., Sweeney, D. W., Shin, J., & Farber, S. A. (2024). Loss of asgr1a leads to the secretion of excess dietary cholesterol in zebrafish. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.26.600848 PMCID: pending
- Jones, E.W., Derrick, J.T, Nisbet, R.M. et al. First-passage-time statistics of growing microbial populations carry an imprint of initial conditions. Sci Rep 13, 21340 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48726-w PMCID: PMC10696051
- Kozan, D. W., Derrick, J. T., Ludington, W. B., & Farber, S. A. (2023). From worms to humans: Understanding intestinal lipid metabolism via model organisms. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, 1868(4), 159290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbalip.2023.159290 PMCID: PMC9974936
- Voortman, L., Anderson, C., Urban, E., Yuan, L., Tran, S., Neuhaus-Follini, A., Derrick, J., Gregor, T., & Johnston, R. J., Jr. (2022). Temporally dynamic antagonism between transcription and chromatin compaction controls stochastic photoreceptor specification in flies. In Developmental Cell (Vol. 57, Issue 15, pp. 1817-1832.e5). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2022.06.016 PMCID: PMC378860
Presentations
- Influence of the microbiome on Drosophila melanogaster lipid metabolism, GSA, Washington DC, 2024 (Poster)
- A systems biology analysis of Drosophila melanogaster lipid metabolism, FASEB Intestinal Biology, Steamboat Springs, CO, 2023 (Poster)
- Community Composition in a Changing World: Using a Circuit Equation to Predict Invasion Dynamics, APS March Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, 2023 (Poster)
Teaching
- TA, Developmental Biology Project Lab. 2021-2022. Johns Hopkins University, CMDB program. Co-instructed 20 to 24 undergraduates on conducting a CRISPR genetic green in C. elegans.
- TA, 7.002. Undergraduate biology lab. 2018-2019. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pioneered a new course focusing on genetic engineering in E. coli
Mentoring Experience
- Isabel Garcia (REU student, fly genetics of lipid uptake) (Summer 2024)
- Logan Miller (JHU undergraduate, biological physics of microbial community interactions) (2022-2024)
- Angela Tian (JHU undergraduate, effects of the microbiome on development in Drosophila) (2022-2024)
Funding
- NIH F31 Fellowship (1F31DK139752-01A1,2025-2027)
Work experience
- SuperUROP in James Collins Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (2019-2020)
- Undergraduate researcher in the Friedman Lab, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Agriculture, Rehovot, Israel (2019)
- Summer REU Student in the Pawlowski Lab, Boyce Thompson Institute, Ithaca, NY (2018)
- Undergraduate Researcher in the Gehring Lab, Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA (2017)
- Mathnasium tutor Winnetka, IL (2015-2017)
Non-English Language Proficiency
- Spanish (DELE B2)
- Italian (Estimated CEFR A2, could read a basic scientific text without translation)