Daniel J. Deredge was born in France and spent many of his formative years in Ethiopia, also with time spent in other countries including the United States. “All this travel gave me an early appreciation for cultural diversity and adaptability,” he says. “Growing up across different environments shaped both my worldview and my comfort with navigating new endeavors, something that turns out to be very useful in interdisciplinary, collaborative science.”
Neither of his parents were scientists, but both worked in academia and education. That household environment normalized academia, which might have otherwise seemed like a distant world. “Growing up, I frequently heard conversations about teaching, academic concerns, and institutions, which, in hindsight, made academia feel like a natural environment rather than a distant objective,” Deredge reflects. “They instilled in me a deep respect for education and curiosity, and perhaps just as importantly, a comfort with academic life that made pursuing a research career feel less intimidating and more like a continuation of something familiar.”
His scientific journey formally started at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he earned both his Bachelor of Science degree and PhD in Biochemistry. He explains, “A first real crossroads came when I was choosing a lab for graduate studies. I had the opportunity to join two broadly different research groups, and I ultimately chose the Licata lab at LSU. That decision proved foundational. The science and the intellectual culture of constant curiosity and rigor truly set me on this path.” His decision to join Vince Licata’s lab for his graduate studies proved pivotal. “In the Licata lab, the pursuit of quantitative, physics-based, and thermodynamic principles to explain biological phenomena, combined with a culture of constant scientific curiosity, was both highly stimulating and deeply rewarding,” he says. His doctoral research focused on protein-DNA interactions, and he became deeply interested in the ways molecular recognition and conformational dynamics govern biological function. His graduate research experience sparked a broader fascination with structural mechanism and macromolecular flexibility.
Postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University, in Patrick Wintrode’s lab, introduced Deredge to the experimental technique that would define his independent career: hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS). The method measures how readily the hydrogen atoms in a protein’s backbone exchange with the surrounding solvent—a readout of how open, flexible, or protected different regions of the protein are. “It felt like finding the right experimental tool for the question: how do proteins move, and why does it matter?” he says. “The ability to experimentally probe conformational dynamics in solution was transformative for me. That curiosity ultimately evolved into my current work integrating HDX-MS with computational modeling and applying those approaches to complex systems like the Dengue virus NS5 protein.”
However, HDX-MS has its limits. It provides information at the level of peptide segments, not individual atoms. During his postdoctoral years, which also included time at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, Deredge began working to bridge that gap. “HDX-MS provides peptide-level information about protein flexibility, while simulations give atomistic detail,” he explains. “Integrating both, if done right, provides the best of both worlds.” That insight became the cornerstone of his research program: combining experimental HDX-MS with molecular dynamics simulations to make protein dynamics not just observable, but quantitatively interpretable.
Today, Deredge’s lab at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy works at the intersection of structural mass spectrometry, computational modeling, and translational virology. A central focus is the NS5 protein of the Dengue virus, the largest and most conserved protein the virus produces, and a compelling target for therapeutic intervention. The lab uses HDX-MS alongside cryo-electron microscopy and computational modeling to map the protein’s conformational landscape: the range of shapes it adopts and how those shapes relate to its function. The goal is not only to understand NS5, but to use that understanding to guide the development of antivirals.
Increasingly, machine learning is entering the picture. “The future lies in tightly coupling experiment, simulation, and machine learning so that we do not just observe dynamics, we model them quantitatively and use them to guide intervention,” Deredge says. He describes his broader vision for the field in terms that are both ambitious and grounded: “I hope to contribute by advancing HDX-MS toward high-resolution, quantitative structural modeling and by applying these approaches to translational challenges such as antiviral development against Dengue.”
Running an interdisciplinary lab is not a simple undertaking. Deredge identifies it as the biggest challenge of his career so far. “Integrating advanced mass spectrometry, high-performance computing, and translational virology requires infrastructure, collaboration, and a shared language across disciplines,” he says. His approach has been to lean into collaboration and mentorship, building a team comfortable thinking in both experimental and computational registers. The effort, he says, has also been the most rewarding of his professional life.
When asked what he finds most rewarding about his work, the answer has shifted over the years. Early in his career, it was the clean satisfaction of research done well. “Formulating a hypothesis grounded in careful observation, rigorously testing it, and discovering that the data support your mechanistic insight,” he says. Now, something else has moved to the foreground. “Observing the transformation of trainees and students as they develop technical skills, intellectual independence, and scientific judgment and ultimately begin to think and act as scientists has become profoundly meaningful.”
Deredge’s connection to the Biophysical Society goes back to his first major scientific conference, the BPS Annual Meeting, attended as a graduate student in the mid-2000s. “I remember being struck by the breadth and depth of the science and by the intellectual energy of the community,” he recalls. “I left that meeting convinced that this was a community I wanted to be part of.” That meeting was held in Baltimore, Maryland, the city where Deredge now works and lives. “I am reminded of that meeting almost weekly as I drive past the convention center,” he says.
He now serves as faculty advisor to a Biophysical Society Student Chapter at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, an initiative he sees as emblematic of what makes the Society valuable. Beyond the Annual Meeting and the pages of Biophysical Journal—an important outlet for his group’s work—it is the Society’s investment in the next generation of scientists that he finds most meaningful.
Ask Deredge what he loves about biophysics and the answer reveals both the scientist and the teacher. “Biophysics seeks to explain how biological observations happen as they do through a foundation rooted in fundamental, quantitative, physics-based principles,” he says. “It asks not just what happens in biology, but why and how, and does so using the language of thermodynamics, mechanics, and molecular interactions.” It is a framework he finds both intellectually elegant and practically powerful. “Biophysical insight plays a critical role in pharmaceutical and biomedical development, guiding everything from understanding disease mechanisms to designing therapeutics. For me, that combination—quantitative rigor and real-world impact—is what makes biophysics so compelling.”
To younger scientists considering the field, Deredge offers advice that reflects his own trajectory: “Do not be afraid of technical difficulty—that is often where the most meaningful and impactful science resides. Develop depth in at least one area but remain intellectually curious across disciplines. Biophysics thrives at the interfaces between fields.” Above all, he emphasizes resilience: “Progress in our field often requires sustained effort and resilience in the face of uncertainty.”