iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Built and installed my winter wraps for the beehives. I'm trying greenhouse panels with a mat black liner to see if they perform better than coroplast panels. They're pretty toasty already, so I'm feeling good about them!

Two beehives with black plastic panels wrapped around them. Ratchet straps are holding the lids down.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Our newest preprint is up! Using super-res #microscopy we demonstrate that proteases and their ligands are localized to distinct microdomains in the plasma membrane. Cleavage-inducing stimuli breaks down the barriers between microdomains, allowing the protease and its ligand to interact.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy #FluorescenceFriday. eSRRF reconstruction of actin dynamics in PMA-stimulated macrophages. Scale bar is 2 microns!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Getting the gals setup for winter. Varroa treatment is done, the population looks good, and now I just need to feed them to make sure they have enough to get through winter.

Open beehive filled with bees. Two off-white rectangles (varroa treatments) can be seen at either end of the hive

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Happy #FluorescenceFriday! This is the cortical actin cytoskeleton of a macrophage imaged using eSRRF and @spirochrome.com's SPY555-FastAct_X.

image shows the web-like network formed by actin. Image is pseudo-coloured using a heatmap with red "dim" regions and orange-white "bright" regions.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

I normally make basic cheeses, but every once in a while I make something fancy.

A white rind cheese with a wedge cut out. A line of black ash runs through the middle of the cheese.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

We had a good harvest of garlic this year!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Wow, that would have worked a lot better if I put in the picture

Cover of "How to Make Cheese: Learn the Secrets to Successful Cheesemaking" by Jean Mansfield

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Its always nice when Hase N Pfeffer (who lives under our front stoop) sees me off to work in the morning.

A wild rabbit in front of some evergreen trees

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Testing @abbelight.bsky.social Smart Kit Buffer in GSDM. Despite being made for dSTORM, it's giving the most amazing GSD performance I've ever seen - across Alexa647, Alexa555 AND Alexa488! #microscopy #GroundStateDepletion

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Spent the afternoon doing some ground state imaging. Always a good day when you spend a chunk of it on a #microscope!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

Went to do a hive inspection and had two nice surprises. My new hive has exploded in population and needed a second brood box, and I caught a swarm that I moved into a second hive! #bees

Two bee hives with a fence behind it. On the fence is hanging some burlap cloth

Closeup of thr front of two bee hives. A number of bees can be seen on front of each hive.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Another one for the collection. Strangely enough, we could never get this antibody to work... www.thermofisher.com/antibody/pro...

A westenblot whose contrast has been adjusted to show a blocky background that appears to be a product of multiple different gels being spliced togeather

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

After a year's hiatus, #bees are back on the farm!

A frame from a beehive with a queen bee near the centre. She had a white dot painted on her back.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Whelp, that was an exciting 15 minutes. Clear skies now!

Clear skies after a huge storm that spawned a few tornadoes

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

It is too early in the year for this 🤬

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Oh the joy of surprise kids. At least your goats had the sense to wait for reasonable weather. One of our goats dropped two little surprises on one of the coldest days of the year.

Two baby goats in a bath tub because it was too cold for them to be in the barn.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Happy International Day for Immunology! As luck would have it, I'm spending today at the @cdnimmunol.bsky.social 2026 meeting where we're discussing emerging pathogens.

Slide from a talk depicting the many different things that have to be considered in the study of new viruses.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

First harvest of 2026 - I cut back the bullshoots of my hops. We fry up the tender ends - it tastes like asparagus. And the goats love the woody ends.

Scissors cutting back some short hop shoots

Link and Jerry (our bucks) eating the leftover hop shoots.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Renovations suck, but my wife is amazing. She built these cabinets from scratch, and based on her own design. Obviously there is still a lot to be done, but just a few days ago this was an empty space.

Front entrance of a house with unfinished cabinetry

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

My labs most recent publication made the journal cover! The image shows a macrophage trying to eat blue dots that mimic dying cells. Red is the macrophage membrane, orange and green are two proteins involved in removing dead cells. The paper: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Cover image of the Journal of Cell Science, Volume 139, issue 6. Image shows a red macrophage on top of a grid of blue dots. Inside of the macrophage are green and yellow dots.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Some more photos showing the woody cap and polyphore layers, the bottom view of the polyphore channels, plus a properly prepared slide showing the polyphores in a thin section.

Polyphore opening viewed from the bottom of the fungus. Looks like honey bee comb. 40x magnification.

Woody cap layer and polyphore layers in a single cross section.

Polyphores in a thin section at 100x magnification. Small spores are visible in each channel.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Cody found some polyphores in the forested part of of our property, so we brought them in to look at them under the microscope. Pretty cool fungi - the bottom is a layer of channels that they release spores through, with a tough woody cap on top for protection.

A small cube of polyphore and a razer blade on a cutting mat

100x magnification of the polyphore on the fungus. The look like a series of small tubes.

40x magnification view of the polyphores, which are long tubes extending from the bottom of the fungus into its core

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

So the picture is 💩, but we had a couple of sandhill cranes come through today. I used to see them all the time back home, but this is my first time seeing them in Ontario!

A very hazy photo of two sandhill cranes standing in a field with the first sprouts of winter wheat appearing.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Are you in first or second or second year of your undergraduate journey @westernu.ca ? If so, come by the Microbiology and Immunology booth in the Mustang Lounge to learn more about our program!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

There may still be snow on the ground, but it's tike to get the leeks and peppers started!

Seed starters underneath a grow light. Everything is cast in pink light.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

For two glorious hours I thought today was Friday.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Returned to work this morning after a long weekend. First email in my inbox was an acceptance letter for a paper! Not a bad way to start off the week. Its under an embargo, so I can't say more, but we're really excited about this one!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

#Goat update. It was too cold last night, so they spent the night in our bathtub.

Two newborn goats in a jacuzzi-style bathtub, standing on yellow and blue towels

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Wasn't expecting to come across 2 new #goats when I went out to do chores tonight. Looks like someone was having sex through the electric fence. Happy Valentines Day, Gracie, I guess....

A large mommy goat, grey-brown in colour, with two babies. One is brown with gray ears. The other is a brownish-grey with white moon spots

Two baby goats in a blue hut with light from a heat lamp coming from above

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I'm sitting under one right now. It's gotta be 20 years old. Ugly as sin, full of dead bugs, but it just won't die.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

Bottled my smoked habanero #hotsauce that I started fermenting back in September, and I got a fresh batch of #sauerkraut started.

Five shaker bottles filled with a red-brown sauce in front of a green mixing bowl filled with shredded cabbage .

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 30/12/2025

Final #brewday of 2025 is in the bag. This is my annual teaching beer that I ferment with 6 different yeasts, which are then used as aroma samples in my course on industrial fermentation. A fun way to explore yeast biochemistry! This year I'm using a Czech style pilsner as the base beer.

Five mini-fermenters, each containing a unique yeast.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

It's the most wonderful time of the year...by which I mean it's the time of year when my brewing club does our big advent exchange. I've been under the weather, so I'm playing catch-up, but here's beer #1 - an abbey-inspired winter ale 🎄 🍺🍻 🎁

A brown ale in a nonic pint glass, held infront of a brightly lit Christmas tree

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

We had a great fall crash course on fluorescence microscopy. Thank you to all our participants and instructors.

Group photo of our participants and instructors.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Day 1 of the Fall Crash Course on Fluorescence Microscopy is nearly done. We've had a great start, lots of questions, and are ramping up for tomorrow! #microscopy #fluorescence

Josh, showing that not all fluorescent proteins are created equal.

Thank you to the Microscopical Society of Canada for sponsoring this year's course. www.msc-smc.ca

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Registration closes Friday at noon! Are you in South-Western Ontario and interested in fluorescence microscopy? If so, we are offering a 2-day course on designing, implementing and analysing microscopy experiments. Visit our website for more information: micrographiauwo.ca/cc2025/ #microscopy

Poster advertising the fall crash course on fluorescence microscopy. Text reads: This immersive two-day course will give participants a solid foundation in fluorescence microscopy, including core principles of experimental design, sample preparation, and analysis. Through hands-on activities and expert instruction, trainees will acquire the skills needed to design and execute quantitative microscopy-based
experiments across diverse sample types and imaging platforms.

Designed for both novice and experienced microscopists, the course emphasizes common techniques and instruments—ensuring easy translation to real-world projects. Whether you're just starting out or looking to sharpen your expertise, this course offers a practical and transferable approach to mastering microscopy.

Limited free registration are available for MSC student members or those part of MSC student chapters, and travel scholarships are available for students >100 km from Western University.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Are you in South-Western Ontario and interested in fluorescence microscopy? If so, check out our upcoming 2-day course on planning, designing, implementing and analysing quantitative microscopy experiments. Visit our website for more information: micrographiauwo.ca/cc2025/ #microscopy #fluorescence

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

✅ Mullet ✅ Skates ✅ Padding ✅ Uniform (slightly big) ✅ New stick Time for some 🏒 (also, it's 33°C today for some reason)

Three kids in yellow uniforms, two in white, playing hockey

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

#Micorscopy community, does anyone know where I can order this type of bottle from? Or even what the proper name is for them?

Small amber glass vial with lid with a glass applicator rod.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Time to get this long weekend started!

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