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KevinDKohl

@kevindkohl.bsky.social

970 followers 980 following 61 posts

I study the physiology and gut microbiome of wild vertebrates 🐸🐭💩🦠 Assoc. Professor at University of Pittsburgh - #QueerSTEM 🏳️‍🌈 #poly - he/him

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Dec 7

I identify as Queer - a term I’m still trying to define for myself. 🏳️‍🌈✨

But definitions from others have helped me:

"queer not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but queer as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and has to invent, create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live."
— bell hooks

A photo of humans labeled as “gays” and Big Bird, C-3PO and R2D2 labeled as “queers”

Queer people don't grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimise humiliation & prejudice. The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we've created to protect us.

i think queer people should be more confusing actually. i think we should make everyone as confused as possible until they give up and realize that total understanding of other people isnt the gateway to respect and compassion

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · 1d

Put your spooky pants on, I posted a new music set 🎶🎃🙀

on.soundcloud.com/uu548CKcFSzv...

spOokY pAnts

put your spooky pants on 💀

soundcloud.com

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · 2d

“When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”
- Leonard Matlovich

A meme of a newspaper or book, with a photo showing two men kissing, and text that reads “You can show two men killing each other at three in the afternoon in any country in the world on public television, but you can't show two men kissing each other."

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · 12d

New music Friday - courtesy of DJ PacKRat 😅🐭✨🎶

Since my sabbatical, I've been dabbling in mixing various styles of house music and adjacent - and my debut set is posted!

soundcloud.com/packratpgh/f...

First Contact

a trip to the stars

soundcloud.com

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · 24d

Beach combing in the Anthropocene: a provider of art materials?

A closeup image of a small bucket filled with pieces of plastic garbage collected from a beach. The sand and water are visible in the background

A collection of plastic pieces, organized by color in the order of the rainbow. In the upper corner is a collection of a few natural materials (a shell, rocks, a stick, and an acorn)

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · 26d

Pleased to share new work tinkering with and testing the concept of the holobiont
@isme-microbes.bsky.social

"Experimental evolution of a mammalian holobiont: bank voles selected for herbivorous capability evolved distinct and robust gut bacterial communities"
🌾🐭🦠

academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Experimental evolution of a mammalian holobiont: bank voles selected for herbivorous capability evolved distinct and robust gut bacterial communities

Abstract. According to the “hologenome” theory of evolution natural selection and evolution can act through a conglomerate biological unit, the “holobiont”

academic.oup.com

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Sep 2

Our night blooming cereus is ready to go tonight!

Photo of the flower bud of our night blooming cereus flower, which is a large white and pinkish bud that progressively becomes "puffy" just before opening. In the background are other house plants in an outdoor backyard

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Aug 6

"The dynamic gut" is a hugely flexible organ and environment!

In this paper, we provide an updated review on how animals modulate this organ to meet energy and nutritional demands, with implications for the microbiome

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

The dynamic gut: the vertebrate gastrointestinal tract and associated microbiome exhibit physiological flexibility and adaptations to diet

Summary: This Review covers morphological, functional, molecular and genetic adjustments in vertebrate gastrointestinal tracts and resident microbiota to different diets, and interprets these within t...

journals.biologists.com

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jul 7

Yup! That's the guy. While he did take it to some extremes, I like to think he'd be proud of some of these newer strategies at fighting absurdity with absurdity.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016...

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jul 6

New ink to share 😅

Diogenes the Cynic, who rejected cultural conventions and embraced the ways of the natural world - especially dogs 🐶

Often depicted with a lantern during the light of day, searching for an “honest man” - a statement on the rarity of authenticity amid society’s hypocrisy 🕯️

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jun 23

How consistent is ‘the dynamic gut’? Complex physiological responses to dietary fiber and protein across three rodent species 🐭💩🦠

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jun 23

Gut bacterial and fungal communities of three rodent species respond uniquely to dietary fiber and protein manipulation 🐭💩🦠

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jun 23

How consistent are dietary effects on gut physiology and the microbiome?

In a pair of papers ⬇️, we show that 3 different rodent species have distinct responses to dietary protein and fiber.

Clearly, we still have a long way to go in understanding host-microbe interactions across species!

Infographic or schematic of our experimental design. The top row shows three photos of our rodent species: herbivorous montane voles (Microtus montanus), omnivorous white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and carnivorous grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus).

Then, it shows four different diets (High Fiber - Low Protein ; High Fiber - High Protein; Low Fiber - Low Protein ; Low Fiber - High Protein).

At the bottom is the question "Do different species show similar or unique physiological and microbial responses to diet?"

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Jun 3

Congrats to Dr. Denise Dearing on being awarded the Utah Governor's Medal for Science for her collection of work on the ecology and evolution of mammalian toxin tolerance!!
🐭🌿⚠️☠️

U of U's College of Science @uofu-science.bsky.social · May 7

Biological Sciences Distinguished Professor Denise Dearing is this year’s recipient of the prestigious 2025 Utah Governor’s Medal for Science and Technology in the Academia/Research category.

The Governor's Medal is the state’s highest civilian award.

Denise Dearing awarded Governor’s Medal | College of Science

Denise Dearing Awarded Governor's Medal May 7, 2025 Above: M. Denise Dearing The office of the Governor of Utah announced that University of Utah biologist M. Denise Dearing is this year’s recipient o...

science.utah.edu

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · May 29

Secondary caption: The horrors persist, but I remain silly

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · May 29

If you build it 🌳🏡

They will come 🐿️

Photo of a tree in our backyard with various wooden elements that make a squirrel tree house. This includes several platforms and some small sets of stairs.

Photo of a squirrel perched in our squirrel tree-house, at the top of a small set of wooden stairs

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · May 27

Using museum specimens for microbiome analyses?

We tested it out - and it seems these samples could be an untapped resource for understanding host-microbe interactions! ⬇️

Samantha Fontaine @samanthafontaine.bsky.social · May 26

SO excited to share my work w/ @kevindkohl.bsky.social and collabs on the gut microbiome of fluid preserved hosts! Species-specific microbiomes were retained despite preservation across vertebrates 🫙🐟🐸🐍🐀I hope this will increase use of valuable museum specimens in research!
doi.org/10.1111/1755...

The Impact of Whole‐Animal Fluid Preservation on the Observed Gut Microbiome of Vertebrates: Implications for the Use of Museum Specimens in Microbiome Research

The vertebrate gut houses diverse microbial communities that provide insights into their host's ecological and evolutionary histories. Nevertheless, microbiome research has not been distributed equal....

doi.org

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · May 22

Delivered a symposium talk met with many good questions and feedback, but one comment is replaying:

“It’s amazing how many questions your work opens while not answering any.”

We went back and forth on the importance of both mechanisms and emergent outcomes.. but not sure we came to an agreement 🫠

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · May 3

A bright day, with two new amazing PhDs launching into the world! 🎓🐭🧬🦠

Congrats to @karenyperalta.bsky.social and @zoomingbio.bsky.social 🎉

Photo of myself and two graduating students, Karen and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s service dog, Serenity in front of a blue and yellow background (Pitts schools colors). We are all wearing graduation regalia (caps, gowns, and PhD hoods), and Karen and Elizabeth are holding their Diploma cases.

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Apr 12

STEAM Saturday outreach 🧬
We taught 5th graders about urban adaptations.

And I’m in love with the new animals they made - adapted to the bridges, rivers, and potholes of Pittsburgh!

A PowerPoint slide with a photo of Pittsburgh, showing tall buildings, bridges, and rivers. The title is “what types of animals would be adapted to Pittsburgh?”. Then, there are pictures of crafted creatures and animals made of pipe cleaners and googly eyes

A photo of our own crafted creatures and animals made of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and feathers.

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Apr 10

The @pghglasscenter.bsky.social has an amazing exhibit - Glass Lifeforms, an international competition of biological glass artwork

Inspired by Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka’s 19th century glass biological models made for Harvard

All entries here: glasslifeform.org/p/38/2025-Ex...

The entrance to the Glass Lifeforms exhibit, showing one of the pieces which are several large glass poppies in a vase, by Evelyn Gottshall Baker

A glass blown art piece of a violet coral mushroom by Lyncia Berry & Julia Rogers. The piece has a rocky and moss bottom, with several up reaching glass blown arms that look very alien like

A lifelike glass fish on a stand by Ryan Bavin. The fish is a cutthroat trout, with small spots on the body, and a darker top compared to the belly.

Glass blown pomegranate seeds by Kathleen Elliot. The small, red beads of fruit look extremely lifelike

KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Mar 24

The talent and resulting artwork from these high school students is amazing! 🤩

Thanks to @mothpotato.bsky.social and @americanbeetles.bsky.social for this great sci-art outreach opportunity

A drawing of a come moth, a large moth with eyespots and long tails on its wings

Student artwork drawing of a tiger moth, a moth with strong striping on its wings

Student artwork of a moth species with clear wings, on a stylized background of leaves and flower buds

Student drawing of a Cecropia moth, North Americas largest species of moth

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Mar 15

Today’s STEAM Saturday outreach event focused on adaptations in animal color

and I’m in love with the coffee filter beetles our 5th graders made
🐞🪲😍

A slide from our lesson on animal color. The text says Warning Colors- Stay Away!
• Bright, bold colors like red, yellow, and orange can be a warning to predators that the animal is dangerous or poisonous.
• This is called "aposematism"
And contains photos of a monarch butterfly, tenrec, coral snake, and milkweed bug

Photo of our coffee filter beetles, a craft. These are coffee filters that were colored with makers and then sprayed with water to have the colors bleed. Then, there are heads and appendages out of black construction paper with googly eyes

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Mar 12

Look what arrived in the mail today! ✨📘

Excited to dig into the perspective of @ambikamath.bsky.social and Melina Packer to learn about how our understanding of animal behavior has been shaped by our own human lens and approaches

Photo of the book “Feminism in the Wild: how human biases shape our understanding of animal behavior” by Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer. The cover has a group of female lions and the book is on a wooden table

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KevinDKohl @kevindkohl.bsky.social · Mar 8

Saving this image - especially to send to my partners at some apropos time 😅