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Derrick Kamp

@kampamycin.bsky.social

780 followers 700 following 150 posts

Visualizing host-microbe interactions | PhD Candidate at UConn | he/they | derrickkamp.com

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Apr 15

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/...

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

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Akaash Kumar @akaashkumar.bsky.social · 23d

🚨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...

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

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Sep 4

Somebody ask these guys where the name "Ohio" comes from

Dan Hicks @profdanhicks.bsky.social · Sep 4

We should all be paying attention here — land acknowledgments banned at Ohio State University

www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Inside Higher Ed
• September 03, 2025
Ohio State Bans Most Land
Acknowledgments
The new policy is one of several in response to a state law that aims to eliminate any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion at public universities.

Reposted by Derrick Kamp

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · Aug 22

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

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Brooke Fitzwater, PhD (she/her) 🐟🪱🏳️‍🌈♾️ @oceanfilly.bsky.social · Jul 24

With many postdoc grants like the NSF PRFB, Ford Fellowship, and Hanna H. Gray fellowships disappearing, I am currently looking for grants that could fund incoming postdoctoral scholars. Here is a thread of some of them 🧵

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Katrina Navickas @katrinanavickas.bsky.social · Jul 30

Someone on here compared AI produced material as "digital asbestos " which in a few decades' time we will have to work out how to eradicate from the fabric of research.

Ned Richardson-Little @historyned.bsky.social · Jul 30

From my own academic research, even pre LLMs there was a huge danger of zombie factoids that begin in a respectable publication by mistake and then get reprinted for decades because no one is backtracing to the original source. Once bad info gets into the system it can take years to clear it out.

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Jul 29

I've seen numerous examples of this in recent days - we're at a point where some reporters are using LLMs as a source and not even remotely properly factchecking, but also where LLM generated material is making its way into other material and being unknowingly reproduced by others.

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 25

The number one feature you want in a new place

Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 25

Started using Fiji to estimate apartment sizes from Zillow images. Being a tall fella, you gotta prep for these things.

I am told this is "On Brand"

A computer screen with a few windows open. A couple windows are of microscopy images, but another is of an apartment

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 24

A meme of a monkey puppet sheepishly looks to the side in one panel and ahead in another. It suggests guilt but also unwillingness to reveal it

Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · Jul 21

I'm back home with my dad and have thoughts about being an Indigenous scientist and academic. I'm writing this in real time so it might get disrupted and will have typos.

I am fairly successful by academic standards. I have a tenure track job, wrote papers, have grant funding, mentor students.

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 17

Just kidding I'm exclusively motivated by Little Debbie Swiss Rolls now

Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 10

I've entered the stage of thesis writing where I reward myself with being able to do chores

Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 11

New paper comparing the light organ symbiosis in the hummingbird bobtail squid to the infamous Hawaiian bobtail squid.

Congrats to @markjmandel.bsky.social and crew, and thanks for letting me take some light organ images for the pub!

Euprymna berryi as a comparative model host for Vibrio fischeri light organ symbiosis | Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbiome studies have been substantially advanced by model systems that enable functional interrogation of the roles of the partners and the molecular communication between those partners. The Euprymna scolopes-Vibrio fischeri system has contributed ...

journals.asm.org

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 10

I've entered the stage of thesis writing where I reward myself with being able to do chores

Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 10

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding.

Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24.

See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it.

🧵 1/3

Subcommittee Markup of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jul 8

The only reason I can imagine them doing this is because they are evil.

Ethan Embry @ethanembry.bsky.social · Jul 8

This is from The Guardian. Forget Cancun or anything else the man is known for and nail Ted Cruz to this for the rest of his life. He did this LAST WEEK.

Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Ricardo Henriques @henriqueslab.bsky.social · Jul 2

🔬👨‍💻📰 #SReD is out!
Automated structural detection for #ImageJ & #FIJI, from nano to macro ✨🐘. No training data, no bias - texture analysis with GPU acceleration!⚡️
Brainchild of @afonsomendes92.bsky.social and adventure w @christlet.bsky.social lab + friends.

Check: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · Jul 1

And then there's this nonsense. WE CANNOT SUBSTITUTE ANIMAL TRIALS WITH AI. We don't even know some of the basics of the immune system bc it's so fricking complicated. AI is based on what we know. Man, I was happier on the plane without wifi. Utter nonsense.

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Jul 1

"At FDA we're accelerating drug approvals so that you don't need to use primates or even animal models. You can do the drug approvals very, very quickly with AI."

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · Jul 1

Final vote. 50-50. VP breaks the tie.

One single GOP Senator could have stopped this abomination. Saved millions of parents from watching their child go hungry. Saved the lives destroyed when Medicaid disappears.

They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.

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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · Jun 30

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Royal Microscopical Society @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social · Jun 27

Brilliant - thanks so much for sharing this! 😀🔬👍

canadabioimaging.bsky.social @canadabioimaging.bsky.social · Jun 25

The Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF) @mcgill.ca is proud to display the newly launched Acknowledgement Guidelines poster by @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social and @globalbioimaging.bsky.social! Make #CreditWhereItsDue for #imagingscientists in publishing. @bioimagingna.bsky.social

lnkd.in/dJPRxTak

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · Jun 25

They’re forming a CDC workgroup to decide which line on this graph looks better and their answer may surprise you

Global infant mortality rate with
and without vaccines
Infant mortality rates measure the share of newborns who die before reaching their first birthday. They are shown here as the actual observed change in the global rate (in blue), and a hypothetical scenario if vaccinations hadn't been rolled out (in red).

While both lines decline, the gap between them continues to widen, resulting in an almost 50% difference at 2024.

Data source: Shattock et al. (2024). Contribution of vaccination to improved child survival: modelling 50 years of the Expanded Programme on Immunization.
CC BY

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franz @franzanth.bsky.social · Jun 25

by age 30 you should have one friend for every major animal group to spam.

seen a good crab post? forward to your token crab person. bat post for the bat person. cicada post for the cicada person. bear post for the bear person. jellyfish post for the jellyfish person. and so on and so forth.

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Derrick Kamp @kampamycin.bsky.social · Jun 20

Learning about science is always rad. But as the Animal-Microbe Symbiosis GRC wraps up, I'm most excited about whom I get to do that science with.

A group of incredible folks sitting in a booth in a crowded bar. The image may be noisy and chaotic but that's part of the charm.

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Jonathan Gilligan @jgilligan.org · Jun 19

Science has published a letter I helped write, as part of Advancing Queer & Trans Equity in Science (AQTES), about why it's important for universities & other institutions to protect trans and gender-nonconforming scientists, and some practical things they can do.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Protect transgender scientists

Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGnC) people are a primary target of the Trump administration. Multiple executive orders seek to erase TGnC protections; mandate denial of gender identity; and ba...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Derrick Kamp

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Jun 12

Good Science

xkcd.com/3101/

5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!

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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · Jun 12

oh hell yeah it's one of THOSE studies 🤩

Dr. Holly P Jones @dochpjones.bsky.social · Jun 12

We decided an experimental approach to this question could be cool. So Andrew strapped a taxidermied badger on top of an RC cart and drove the cart toward incubating curlews both while playing prairie dog ground-based predator calls and not (control).

We lovingly call this the badgerinator.

🧪

Badger mounted on an RC car approaching a curlew nest.

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