CV

Joshua T. Derrick

PhD Candidate

Department of Biology

Johns Hopkins University

3520 San Martin Rd, Baltimore, MD 21218

jderric4@jhu.edu

Positions

• Johns Hopkins University 2020–present, Biology Department (Graduate Student)
• Carnegie Institution 2021–2025, Embryology Department, Baltimore (Graduate Student)

Education

• B.S. in Computational Biology and Creative Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020
• Doctoral Candidacy in 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

1. Derrick, J. T., Moll, T. O., Sweeney, D. W., Shin, J., Svecla, M., Norata, G. D., & Farber, S. A. (2026). Asialoglycoprotein receptor subunit asgr1a loss results in attenuated cholesterol absorption in zebrafish fed a Western diet. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 113239. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2026.113239 PMID: 42264088.
2. Derrick J. T., Deme P., Haughey M., Farber S. A., Ludington W. B. (2025). 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 PMID: 4062627.
3. Ludington, W.B., Zhu, H., Aumiller, K., Xu, A. and Derrick, J. T. , (2025). Structure, function, and quantitative biology of the Drosophila gut microbiome. Current opinion in microbiology, 87, p.102653, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2025.102653 PMID: 40829214.
4. 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 PMID: 38049502.
5. 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. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbalip.2023.159290 PMID: 36738984.
6. 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. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2022.06.016 PMID: 35835116.

Presentations

• The foregut as an early regulator of postprandial lipid response in Drosophila melanogaster Fly Meeting, Chicago, IL 2026 (Poster)
• Regulation of Drosophila melanogaster intestinal lipid metabolism by the gut microbiota, Fly Meeting, San Diego, CA 2025 (Poster)
• 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 screen 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)
• Tutor, Mathnasium Winnetka, IL (2015–2017)

Non–English Language Proficiency

• Spanish (DELE B2)
• Italian (Estimated CEFR A2, could read a basic scientific text without translation)