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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁

@bryanheit.bsky.social

2.7K followers 3.1K following 380 posts

Canadian immunologist who looks at host-pathogen interactions, cardiovascular disease & how they intersect. Also a big 🔬, 🔭 & 3D printing nerd. I ❤️ 🧀,🐝, 🍺 & 🐐. Same username on threads. He/him. www.phagocytes.ca www.micrographiauwo.ca

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 2h

We can still bring in international students, but not as many as in the past (nor as many as most universities planned for). The cap includes MSc and PhD students, so visa availability is down across the board.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 11h

I'm not sure website views are a meaningful metric. Regardless, at an undergrad/grad level, Canada has reduced student visas which has reduced international student enrollment.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 11h

Not exactly. Operating funds to provide undergraduate educational programs is mostly provincial. Money that supports scientific research is almost entierly federal - by a factor of 10:1, if not more

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 2d

This is insane. 13 years ago we bought a million dollar #microscope to do this type of super-resolution imaging. Today, all you need is a smartphone and a few hundred bucks of off-the-shelf components 🤯

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Direct single-molecule detection and super-resolution imaging with a low-cost portable smartphone-based microscope - Nature Communications

Loretan and colleagues present a low-cost smartphone-based microscope capable of detecting single-molecule fluorescence. This approach opens doors to personalised and widely distributed applications in diagnostics, biosensing, and science education.

www.nature.com

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 5d

While I've never seen the supreme court in action, I did have the unfortunate experience of serving on a provincial court jury last year. That experience didn't exactly give me faith in the robustness of our justice system, nor in the capabilities of our judges.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 7d

✅ 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

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 7d

My 10 y/o officially has a mullet. And I'm afraid to say that it is glorious.

a man is holding a bottle of water in front of a sign that says business in the front

Alt: a man is holding a bottle of water in front of a sign that says business in the front

media.tenor.com

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 9d

I'm torn, as being hurried with cheese still tops my list. It's a gouda way to go.

www.cnn.com/2024/09/25/s...

DNA from 3,600-year-old cheese sequenced by scientists | CNN

Scientists have sequenced DNA from 3,600-year-old cheese, the oldest in the archaeological record. The intact cheese was found with mummified remains in China.

www.cnn.com

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 10d

Pollen tends to clump in water, but mounting in glycerol usually works well. Over time glycerol can fade some of the pigments though. For permanent slides, pollen is usually washed in concentrated KOH and then mounted.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you!

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 10d

Thank you!

And we need it for a truely essential oil - immersion oil!

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 10d

#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 · 12d

Yeah, that Monsanto video was a real disgrace.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 12d

I'm excited to announce my labs newest paper in which we identify GATA2 as a driver of a stem cell-like phenotype of atherosclerotic plaque macrophages which promote the development of disease. #macrophages #atheroscerlosis

doi.org/10.1093/jleu...

GATA2 Induces a Stem Cell-Like Transcriptional Program in Macrophages That Promotes an Atherogenic Phenotype

The upregulation of GATA2 in response to pro-atherosclerotic stimuli induces a stem cell-like phenotype in macrophages that promotes disease progression.

doi.org

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 14d

There are macrophages, and then all the other riff-raff.

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 21d

Score! 🍄

A good sized puffball mushroom I found in the pasture.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 23d

Some things never change. My son has joined his first 🏒 team (along with 2 of his friends) and has gotten his first jock strap...so just like when I was a kid, the first thing the three of them did was see how hard they could kick eachother in the crotch.

a man in a suit and tie is sitting in the back seat of a plane

Alt: a man in a suit and tie is sitting in the back seat of a plane doing a facepalm

media.tenor.com

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · 26d

This is a bit of a long shot, but does anyone know of a source for the OT-IIZ T cell hybridoma (immortalized OT-II T cells)? I've been unable to find a cell repository that carries it. #Immunosky

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Sep 9

WDYMNMA? (What do you mean, no more acronyms)

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Aug 30

Time to get this long weekend started!

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Aug 14

One of my greatest joys was when I managed to squeeze a Hannibal lecter quote into a paper title. (Having an Old Friend for Dinner: The Interplay between Apoptotic Cells and Efferocytes)

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Aug 8

That is bizarre! Hard to see how that would happen without biorxiv giving them access to their system.

🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Aug 7

Wait, biorxiv did what? I've submitted two papers there in the past 2 months and not received that nonsense!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Jul 24

I wish I had blue hair - or any hair at all for that matter!

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🍁 Bryan Heit, PhD 🍁 @bryanheit.bsky.social · Jul 24

Excited to share our newest preprint!

bioRxiv Immunology @biorxiv-immuno.bsky.social · Jul 23

GATA2 Induces a Stem Cell-Like Transcriptional Program in Macrophages that Promotes Atherogenesis. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665581v1

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