My name is Joshua Welsh and I’m currently a Staff Scientist conducting research in Jennifer Jones’ lab within the ‘Laboratory of Pathology‘ at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

My main research interest is on small lipid spheres released from cells called extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs contain proteins and genetic information from the cell they were released from. To date, I have investigated novel ways to detect and analyse EVs as well as their use as markers to diagnose and track the progression of disease. My current research focuses on utilizing EVs as a method for cancer diagnosis and predicting treatment prognosis..

Here you can find information on my research, interests, learning resources for analysis equipment, as well as links and information on software I have written.

Please feel free to contact me by email, joshua.welsh[at]nih.gov, if you have any questions.

Employment Link to heading

2023-Pres., Staff Scientist, National Institutes of Health
2021-2023, Research Fellow, National Institutes of Health
2017-2021, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institutes of Health
In the Translational Nanobiology Section I am developing a high-throughput, scalable, clinical pipeline for characterizing extracellular vesicles for their use as biomarkers. This work has required me to develop assays but also develop standalone software for the standardization of results, as well as perform multidimensional data analyses. I have led the planning, conducting, and analysis of experiments along with the writing of several manuscripts. I have also been the day-to-day supervisor of numerous postbaccalaureate and summer student’s lab members.

2016-2017, Senior Research Assistant, University of Southampton
Following my PhD thesis, I was funded in-kind by Thermo Fisher Scientific to continue developing a high-sensitivity flow cytometry platform and standardization methods to characterize extracellular vesicles.

2014-2015, Tutor, The Brilliant Club
In this role I designed an 8-week course to teach to 2 classes of 14-15-year-old children at schools from underprivileged backgrounds. This initiative, organized by the Brilliant Club, is to help increase the variety of students in STEM fields at the top universities in the UK by having PhD students and postdoctoral researchers teach their specialty. The course that I delivered was on basics of flow cytometry and extracellular vesicles. One of my students was selected for having done outstanding work by peer-reviewed process and had their final project published in the organization’s journal.

2013-2016 Lab Demonstrator, University of Southampton
In this position I taught groups of 30 students per week how to perform bacterial transformation and determine whether it was successful or not. I would then mark their experimental write-up of the lab data they produced. I chose to take this position to gain experience in disseminating knowledge to students as well as to gain experience teaching large groups.

Education Link to heading

2013-2017, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Southampton
Thesis title: Flow cytometer optimisation and standardisation for the study of extracellular vesicles as translational biomarkers.
Supervisors: Nicola Englyst, PhD; Judith Holloway, PhD; David Smith, BMBS, DM; James Wilkinson, PhD.

2014-2015, PCAP Module 1, University of Southampton

2010-2013, Bachelor of Science, University of Leceister
Biological Sciences: Physiology with Pharmacology

Professional Activities Link to heading

2020-Present, Member, ISAC Data Committee
2020-Present, Member-at-large, ISEV Executive Board
2020-Present, Associate Editor, Current Protocols in Cytometry
2019-Present, Chair, ISEV Rigor and Standardization: EV Reference Materials Task Force
2016-Present, Member, ISAC-ISEV-ISTH EV Flow Cytometry Working Group
2015-Present, Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy
2014-Present, Member, International Society of Extracellular Vesicles
2014-Present, Member, International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC)