Derrick Kamp
@kampamycin.bsky.social
Visualizing host-microbe interactions | Postdoctoral Fellow at UT Austin | he/they | derrickkamp.com
Pinned
Derrick Kamp
@kampamycin.bsky.social
· Apr 15
Organ structure and bacterial microbiogeography in a reproductive organ of the Hawaiian bobtail squid reveal dimensions of a defensive symbiosis | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Sequence-based microbiome studies have revealed much about how hosts interact with
communities of symbiotic microbiota but often lack a spatial understanding of how
microbes relate to each other and t...
journals.asm.org
This work is finally officially out!
Check out our paper, where we use various advanced microscopy techniques to shed light on the structures of a complex symbiotic organ and the communities of bacteria that live inside it.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Check out our paper, where we use various advanced microscopy techniques to shed light on the structures of a complex symbiotic organ and the communities of bacteria that live inside it.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Come join our network at prideinmicrobiology.github.io!
🏳️🌈 Sign up for our mailing list for information about our events! 🦠
#Pride #STEM #LGBTQ
🏳️🌈 Sign up for our mailing list for information about our events! 🦠
#Pride #STEM #LGBTQ
February 4, 2026 at 8:44 PM
Come join our network at prideinmicrobiology.github.io!
🏳️🌈 Sign up for our mailing list for information about our events! 🦠
#Pride #STEM #LGBTQ
🏳️🌈 Sign up for our mailing list for information about our events! 🦠
#Pride #STEM #LGBTQ
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
The widespread targeting of Native Americans demonstrates its not about legal status, its about racial profiling. ictnews.org/news/fearing...
Fearing ICE, Native Americans rush to prove their right to belong in the US - ICT
As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.
ictnews.org
February 4, 2026 at 4:59 PM
The widespread targeting of Native Americans demonstrates its not about legal status, its about racial profiling. ictnews.org/news/fearing...
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Interested in a career focused on microbiology or microbiome education?
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
January 20, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Interested in a career focused on microbiology or microbiome education?
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
A z-stack image of aphid embryos and bacterial protein. The rainbow depth-coded projection grants the embryos a 3D effect, while the punctate white spots are bacterial protein. Feels very nebulous, in the most literal sense!
#FluorescenceFriday
#FluorescenceFriday
January 30, 2026 at 2:48 PM
A z-stack image of aphid embryos and bacterial protein. The rainbow depth-coded projection grants the embryos a 3D effect, while the punctate white spots are bacterial protein. Feels very nebulous, in the most literal sense!
#FluorescenceFriday
#FluorescenceFriday
The cool part of microscopy is that even when you don't get good data, you can still get cool images.
Aphid embryos labeled with DAPI, antibody and WGA. Imaged on an epifluorescence scope.
Aphid embryos labeled with DAPI, antibody and WGA. Imaged on an epifluorescence scope.
January 21, 2026 at 4:57 PM
The cool part of microscopy is that even when you don't get good data, you can still get cool images.
Aphid embryos labeled with DAPI, antibody and WGA. Imaged on an epifluorescence scope.
Aphid embryos labeled with DAPI, antibody and WGA. Imaged on an epifluorescence scope.
Interested in a career focused on microbiology or microbiome education?
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
January 20, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Interested in a career focused on microbiology or microbiome education?
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
The Microbiome Centers Consortium is hosting a panel of educators representing different paths in secondary education. Come hear the advice and experience of some great teachers!
Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Hawaiian bobtail squid maintain distinct microbiota in different organs, including bioluminescent bacteria in their light organs, by deploying immune factors with tailored expressions in each niche. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/QxLo50XPnyS
December 28, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Hawaiian bobtail squid maintain distinct microbiota in different organs, including bioluminescent bacteria in their light organs, by deploying immune factors with tailored expressions in each niche. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/QxLo50XPnyS
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
A super detailed protocol + video on Cryo-ExM - Cryo-Expansion Microscopy, led by the labs of our former postdocs @marinelap.bsky.social & @ebertiaux.bsky.social.
Clear, practical, and very useful for anyone doing nanoscale imaging 🚀 app.jove.com/t/68595/expa...
Clear, practical, and very useful for anyone doing nanoscale imaging 🚀 app.jove.com/t/68595/expa...
December 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM
A super detailed protocol + video on Cryo-ExM - Cryo-Expansion Microscopy, led by the labs of our former postdocs @marinelap.bsky.social & @ebertiaux.bsky.social.
Clear, practical, and very useful for anyone doing nanoscale imaging 🚀 app.jove.com/t/68595/expa...
Clear, practical, and very useful for anyone doing nanoscale imaging 🚀 app.jove.com/t/68595/expa...
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
A hill on which I will die: Calvin and Hobbes is one of the great pieces of 20th-century American literature in no small part because it was never turned into anything aside from a comic strip. Leave it be.
December 18, 2025 at 9:29 PM
A hill on which I will die: Calvin and Hobbes is one of the great pieces of 20th-century American literature in no small part because it was never turned into anything aside from a comic strip. Leave it be.
I've started imaging the symbionts inside the bacteriocytes of aphids.
You can see the aphid body in white and the bacteria are depth-coded different colors to show the dimensionality. Some of the embryos are getting loaded up with symbionts!
#FluorescenceFriday
You can see the aphid body in white and the bacteria are depth-coded different colors to show the dimensionality. Some of the embryos are getting loaded up with symbionts!
#FluorescenceFriday
December 19, 2025 at 7:21 PM
I've started imaging the symbionts inside the bacteriocytes of aphids.
You can see the aphid body in white and the bacteria are depth-coded different colors to show the dimensionality. Some of the embryos are getting loaded up with symbionts!
#FluorescenceFriday
You can see the aphid body in white and the bacteria are depth-coded different colors to show the dimensionality. Some of the embryos are getting loaded up with symbionts!
#FluorescenceFriday
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
“‘In evidence-based policy, you gather data and then make a decision,’ [Jake] Scott said. ‘This is the reverse. CDC made the policy decision and then funded research to back it up. When you commission research after making a decision, you're not looking for answers—you're looking for validation.’”
“NIH is in crisis, grants are being terminated, labs are closing….but they found $1.6 million for an unsolicited proposal to study whether we should delay a vaccine we’ve been safely giving for 40 years, in a country where infants are at high risk of infection”
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study, likely to controversial Danish researchers
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 18, 2025 at 4:22 PM
“‘In evidence-based policy, you gather data and then make a decision,’ [Jake] Scott said. ‘This is the reverse. CDC made the policy decision and then funded research to back it up. When you commission research after making a decision, you're not looking for answers—you're looking for validation.’”
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
This 🧵 is important & I want to highlight: They are going to give kids in an Guinea-Bissau a placebo for Hep B even though it's already proven to be safe. These white supremacists are putting African children at risk to support a thesis we know is wrong. They do not value Black lives.
December 17, 2025 at 4:53 PM
This 🧵 is important & I want to highlight: They are going to give kids in an Guinea-Bissau a placebo for Hep B even though it's already proven to be safe. These white supremacists are putting African children at risk to support a thesis we know is wrong. They do not value Black lives.
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
IRW — a Pulitzer-winning nonprofit newsroom at American — and @thebarbedwire.com traced the history of anti-trans legislation. Houston conservatives realized homophobia didn’t fly anymore, weaponized girls’ safety, and parroted segregationist language. It worked.
thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
Where Did Anti-Trans Laws Start? How a Forgotten Houston Ordinance Turned Into a Massive, Nationwide Culture War
In fighting for bathroom bills in Houston, Texas conservatives provided a blueprint for the rest of the country.
thebarbedwire.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:47 PM
IRW — a Pulitzer-winning nonprofit newsroom at American — and @thebarbedwire.com traced the history of anti-trans legislation. Houston conservatives realized homophobia didn’t fly anymore, weaponized girls’ safety, and parroted segregationist language. It worked.
thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
thebarbedwire.com/2025/12/04/a...
New preprint characterizing a protein likely required for vertical transmission. Some really stellar undergrads contributing to this work too!
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells
Intracellular bacterial symbioses have arisen myriad times in eukaryotes, with dozens known from insects alone[1][1],[2][2]. Beginning with Buchnera , the obligate endosymbiont of aphids, genomes of e...
www.biorxiv.org
December 8, 2025 at 4:57 PM
New preprint characterizing a protein likely required for vertical transmission. Some really stellar undergrads contributing to this work too!
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells
Love this cover
Check out our cover article by @timjanicke.bsky.social and colleagues about the role of sexual selection in animal speciation. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic.... The beautiful illustration is by Katharina Bóth.
December 4, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Love this cover
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Really fascinating and important work
Excited to share our new @natecoevo.nature.com
paper. We identified microbes found across nearly all ruminants that act as the functional backbone of both the rumen ecosystem and the host, with major implications for food security and climate change mitigation. (1/8)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
paper. We identified microbes found across nearly all ruminants that act as the functional backbone of both the rumen ecosystem and the host, with major implications for food security and climate change mitigation. (1/8)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 4, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Really fascinating and important work
Once again, Spotify refuses to release the .csv of supplemental data behind Spotify Wrapped, thus fueling the reproducibility crisis.
December 3, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Once again, Spotify refuses to release the .csv of supplemental data behind Spotify Wrapped, thus fueling the reproducibility crisis.
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Induced endosymbiosis between a fungus and bacterium reveals a shift from antagonism to commensalism
@natcomms.nature.com by Thomas Gassler et al from Julia Vorholt
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ralstonia pickettii in the fungus Rhizopus microsporus
#Endofungal
@natcomms.nature.com by Thomas Gassler et al from Julia Vorholt
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ralstonia pickettii in the fungus Rhizopus microsporus
#Endofungal
Induced endosymbiosis between a fungus and bacterium reveals a shift from antagonism to commensalism - Nature Communications
Gassler et al. implant a free-living bacterium into fungal cells to study early steps in the establishment of an endosymbiosis. They observe vertical transmission of the bacteria despite initial host ...
www.nature.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Induced endosymbiosis between a fungus and bacterium reveals a shift from antagonism to commensalism
@natcomms.nature.com by Thomas Gassler et al from Julia Vorholt
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ralstonia pickettii in the fungus Rhizopus microsporus
#Endofungal
@natcomms.nature.com by Thomas Gassler et al from Julia Vorholt
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Ralstonia pickettii in the fungus Rhizopus microsporus
#Endofungal
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
The Lariviere lab at UMiami is recruiting PhD students! Incoming students will join us in studying host-microbe interactions in the honey bee gut, using molecular and genetic approaches. Please see the attached flyer for more details.
#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
November 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM
The Lariviere lab at UMiami is recruiting PhD students! Incoming students will join us in studying host-microbe interactions in the honey bee gut, using molecular and genetic approaches. Please see the attached flyer for more details.
#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
Our study, just published in #ScienceAdvances and funded by @hfspo.bsky.social, explores the post metamorphic cell composition of the sea urchin juvenile, revealing that its body is head-like. Long considered brainless creatures, they’re all brain instead!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Single-nucleus profiling highlights the all-brain echinoderm nervous system
A sea urchin is a head with a brain-like organization and a vertebrate-type retinal signature.
www.science.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Our study, just published in #ScienceAdvances and funded by @hfspo.bsky.social, explores the post metamorphic cell composition of the sea urchin juvenile, revealing that its body is head-like. Long considered brainless creatures, they’re all brain instead!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This is definitive "Hell yeah" science
Remote sensing of lichens with drones for detecting dinosaur bones: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Remote sensing of lichens with drones for detecting dinosaur bones
Brian Pickles and colleagues show that exposed dinosaur bones can be remote sensed
with drones by virtue of colored lichens growing on them.
www.cell.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:34 PM
This is definitive "Hell yeah" science
Looking to learn about career paths in microbiome research?
Come join a panel discussion hosted by the Microbiome Centers Consortium. We're talking to some great folks in diverse positions about how they explored their proffesional paths.
lnkd.in/e6WVziXY
Come join a panel discussion hosted by the Microbiome Centers Consortium. We're talking to some great folks in diverse positions about how they explored their proffesional paths.
lnkd.in/e6WVziXY
October 27, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Looking to learn about career paths in microbiome research?
Come join a panel discussion hosted by the Microbiome Centers Consortium. We're talking to some great folks in diverse positions about how they explored their proffesional paths.
lnkd.in/e6WVziXY
Come join a panel discussion hosted by the Microbiome Centers Consortium. We're talking to some great folks in diverse positions about how they explored their proffesional paths.
lnkd.in/e6WVziXY
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
US Government accounts have arrived on Bluesky.
Block on sight.
Protect your digital space.
Be aware that the DHS account in particular is known to quote dunk on regular people to encourage their followers to harass them.
The detach quote function will come in very handy here…
Block on sight.
Protect your digital space.
Be aware that the DHS account in particular is known to quote dunk on regular people to encourage their followers to harass them.
The detach quote function will come in very handy here…
October 17, 2025 at 11:05 PM
US Government accounts have arrived on Bluesky.
Block on sight.
Protect your digital space.
Be aware that the DHS account in particular is known to quote dunk on regular people to encourage their followers to harass them.
The detach quote function will come in very handy here…
Block on sight.
Protect your digital space.
Be aware that the DHS account in particular is known to quote dunk on regular people to encourage their followers to harass them.
The detach quote function will come in very handy here…
Reposted by Derrick Kamp
🚨Publication alert🚨
My first, first-author paper is now out in @natphoton.nature.com! Our paper describes an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm and eight-channel camera-based hardware we developed enabling unmixing of low SNR live-cell data at video rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My first, first-author paper is now out in @natphoton.nature.com! Our paper describes an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm and eight-channel camera-based hardware we developed enabling unmixing of low SNR live-cell data at video rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Multispectral live-cell imaging with uncompromised spatiotemporal resolution - Nature Photonics
A tree-like arrangement of dichroic mirrors and multiple cameras coupled with an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm enables multispectral imaging of live cells in up to eight spectral channels with...
www.nature.com
September 16, 2025 at 10:20 AM
🚨Publication alert🚨
My first, first-author paper is now out in @natphoton.nature.com! Our paper describes an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm and eight-channel camera-based hardware we developed enabling unmixing of low SNR live-cell data at video rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My first, first-author paper is now out in @natphoton.nature.com! Our paper describes an iterative spectral unmixing algorithm and eight-channel camera-based hardware we developed enabling unmixing of low SNR live-cell data at video rates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Somebody ask these guys where the name "Ohio" comes from
We should all be paying attention here — land acknowledgments banned at Ohio State University
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
September 4, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Somebody ask these guys where the name "Ohio" comes from