KevinDKohl
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kevindkohl.bsky.social
KevinDKohl
@kevindkohl.bsky.social
970 followers 980 following 60 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.bsky.social
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
Reposted by KevinDKohl
4nikkolas.bsky.social
after millions of views and shares of my Portland Frog art. (thank you all🙏🏾) I got requests to highlight priests, and chickens, and Chicagoans, and T-Rexes, and more… all of us who refuse to bend the knee. so this is for US.
𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚕.
𝚆𝚎 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚆𝚒𝚗.
October 10, 2025 at 9:11 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
“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."
October 6, 2025 at 10:23 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
September 26, 2025 at 1:06 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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)
September 15, 2025 at 2:23 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
September 12, 2025 at 5:02 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
September 2, 2025 at 11:57 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
"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
August 6, 2025 at 2:35 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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 🕯️
July 6, 2025 at 4:05 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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?"
June 23, 2025 at 8:46 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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!!
🐭🌿⚠️☠️
uofu-science.bsky.social 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
June 3, 2025 at 5:55 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
May 29, 2025 at 10:46 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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! ⬇️
May 27, 2025 at 10:21 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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 🫠
May 22, 2025 at 7:44 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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.
May 3, 2025 at 3:06 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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.
April 12, 2025 at 3:57 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
April 10, 2025 at 6:00 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
March 24, 2025 at 11:46 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
March 15, 2025 at 3:38 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
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
March 12, 2025 at 12:25 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
I have my sign ready for tomorrow! 🪧🌿🧪
#StandUpForScience
A protest sign reading “Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching. Even when doing the wrong thing is legal” - Aldo Leopold. The sign also included silhouettes of leaves and a photo of Aldo Leopold
March 7, 2025 at 12:07 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
There is an amazing inter-city Rustbelt Queer community. I’m in absolute disbelief of this news of our Buffalo NY family..

These two will always serve as inspirations of Queer Joy
💫🌈

www.wbfo.org/2025-03-05/p...
Prominent artists and advocates killed in Allentown double homicide
A friend of the couple went to their home on St. Louis Place Tuesday afternoon after one of them didn't show up for work. Police say that's when the friend noticed a random man in the house with a kni...
www.wbfo.org
March 6, 2025 at 1:43 AM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
It was a big week in the lab, with two PhD defenses!

Congrats to two new Doctors!
Dr. Karen Peralta Martinez and Dr. Elizabeth Rudzki
@karenyperalta.bsky.social
@zoomingbio.bsky.social
✨🧬🏛️🧐🎉
Photo of Karen, myself, and Elizabeth all smiling at the camera, with the background of our living room.
March 2, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by KevinDKohl
mammalogists.bsky.social
Fellow Mammalogists.

As many of you are aware, science is in a state of turmoil in the United States. Recent efforts to drastically reduce government workforces and research funding for science will lead to many adverse consequences for Earth’s remaining natural ecosystems.
February 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
kevindkohl.bsky.social
I’m excited to share this innovative new work from a recent Kohl Lab meeting. 🎨
Several Perler bead craft pieces (the beads that one irons together for them to melt). There is a monkey, tree frog, two birds, a bird in a nest, a crab, a raccoon, an octopus, a star with a face, and two bacteria. The background is a wooden desk
February 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM