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Heather Brown-Harding

@microscopyed.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1.1K following 440 posts

Imaging Scientist at Harvard Center for Biological Imaging. I help people do cool science. Lover of all things microscopy & microbiology 🔬🦠

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Dec 6

I created a starter pack for Imaging Scientists that work in core facilities.

I'm sure I missed lots of people since I searched for those that have "core" or "facility" in their bios, so let me know who else should be added!

go.bsky.app/2bbgRQU

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Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

Beth Cimini 🔬💻📊 @bethcimini.bsky.social · 19h

Now that I can say it publicly - huge congratulations to @michelleitano.bsky.social , winner of this year's @bioimagingna.bsky.social Michael W Davidson award for "Community contributions, in any of the areas of Engagement, Education, Mentorship, and Standardization". So well deserved! #GBIxBINA2025

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 1d

Obelia hydroid colony from Carolina Biological Supply Company.
Taken with a 25x/0.8 objective. 20 tiles, 103 "planes" with the Zeiss Lightfield 4D.
If you're in the Boston area, come see us at the HCBI!

Image of a hydroid with a black background and the sample in red/orange/yellow

Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

Joachim Goedhart @joachimgoedhart.bsky.social · 9d

Identification of optimal fluorophores for use in the Drosophila embryo by Timothy E Saunders and team: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Figure 1: Fluorophore intensity in the Drosophila blastoderm (n.c. 14). Comparison of (A) green and (B) red fluorescence intensity using the same intensity scaling in n.c. 14. The fluorescence signal did
not saturate. Shown are single imaging planes. Normalised histograms of fluorescence intensity for green (C) and red (D) fluorophores averaged across at least n=3 embryos per line. Scale bars = 20 μm

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks! 😀

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 9d

I submitted my first paper as the corresponding author today.🥂
I always imagined it would be science, but it's core management instead 🤷‍♀️

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 16d

Lightfield 4D has landed at the HCBI. If you are in Boston, come check it out!
hcbi.fas.harvard.edu

For those not in Boston, enjoy this GIF of a hydra moving around with a z-depth coded LUT

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Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

John Ngo @johntngo.bsky.social · 17d

🚀 Our new paper is out @natmethods.nature.com!

Kuffer & Marzilli engineered conditionally stable MS2 & PP7 coat proteins (dMCP & dPCP) that degrade unless bound to RNA, enabling ultra–low-background, single-mRNA imaging in live cells.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧬 www.addgene.org/John_Ngo/

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Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

Sara Wickstrom @sarawickstrom.bsky.social · 28d

My lab @mpi-muenster.bsky.social is looking for a computational biologist with a passion for imaging and spatial biology. A staff scientist position with long-term perspective! Apply and spread the word 🙏 jobs.mpi-muenster.mpg.de/jobposting/0...

Computational image analyst (m/f/d)

The Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, has an opening for a

jobs.mpi-muenster.mpg.de

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 24d

Fair, so I can't "count" my PLOS paper

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 24d

I put my info here. It wasn't painful so even if nothing comes of it, I didn't waste too much time
www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

Homepage | ANT

www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 24d

6 of my papers are on the list...

Ryan Estrada @ryanestrada.com · Sep 6

Just a reminder to check for your name in this list of books that OpenAI trained from. If your name is there, they probably owe you several thousand dollars.

OpenAI cried that if everyone eligible author files, the company will go bankrupt, so I'm alerting every author I have ever spoken to.

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI

Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

James Manton @jamesdmanton.bsky.social · 25d

We present a simple method to easily increase the imageable depth of an expansion microscopy gel on a typical inverted microscope ten-fold, using some carefully placed FEP film and a water dipping objective lens:

A comparison of imaging an expansion microscopy hydrogel with a water dipping objective lens, using either eye gel as an immersion medium or a combination of Immersol W, water and a thin FEP film. In both cases, the sample is supported by a thin FEP film rather than a coverglass.

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · 29d

This was wonderfully written and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment 👇
www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Harvard Will Have to Sacrifice Something. It Should Be Our Funding. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

In these trying times, it is the responsibility of students and affiliates to resist federal concessions in any way possible. Relinquishing our responsibility to defend higher education will come at g...

www.thecrimson.com

Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

BioImaging North America @bioimagingna.bsky.social · Sep 9

#microscopycommunity- 🌍 Calling all early career imaging scientists!
The Africa Microscopy Initiative is launching its Partners in Teaching (PiTCH) program - application deadline Sept 20!

Apply now and make a global impact: PiTCH Program Info buff.ly/Szq9Pxy

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Sep 9

Does anyone else get to the point in the manuscript that they have to print it out and physically wrote on it to make progress? For me it's when I hit ~90% done

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Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Sep 6

The Onion News Network truck is currently stationed outside the Broadview ICE Detention facility just outside of Chicago.

The Onion News Network truck featuring the headline ICE Opens New Supermax Prison for Most Hardened Toddlers stationed outside the ICE facility.

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Sep 5

I had sciatica during pregnancy and sometimes couldn't walk. They still didn't want me to take anything. This will be bad...

Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · Sep 5

Tylenol/autism stuff is bad for many reasons, but it will be used to push the idea that pregnant people shouldn't have pain relief. Women's pain is already dismissed.

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Sep 5

Happy #FluorescenceFriday
Check out my depth-coded LUT of "Chlamydia divisional rings"

Microscope image showing a variety of rainbow "donuts" that are created by labeled proteins that create the divisional ring

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Sep 5

Our cryo-EM is beginning installation. It sat in crates for a long time because funding cuts made it so we couldn't renovate the intended room. We found a place for it with minimal renovation needs.
Now hoping we can hire an expert instead of LM people trying to do it...

Thermo Glacios 2 preparing for installation

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Aug 28

What are folks' favorite software for making tables these days? I need to make things prettier than my current ones in Google drive...

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Aug 27

Showing up to my next Dr appointment with a weighted vest so I can tip the scale from overweight to obese and get my shot ...

George Pearkes @peark.es · Aug 27

FDA is authorizing anybody with a risk factor from this list to receive the vaccines, as well as anybody 65+.

Figure 2 from https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMsb2506929

Reposted by Heather Brown-Harding

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · Aug 27

Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · Aug 27

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action

Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.

arstechnica.com

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Aug 27

I'm fine with not caring about the technology. I'm sure that's true with 80% of our users
I'm hoping the "I want them to show this" is more that they want it to answer this question vs I want this specific data
I'm not sure how to read it

Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Aug 27

Read Middleton, 2024 on Managing Shared Research Resources and an interview really hit me
PI: “I don’t care about your technology, I just want figures for my papers, and I want them to show this" 🫠

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Heather Brown-Harding @microscopyed.bsky.social · Aug 27

I learned to crochet "Disco Fred" because I do best keeping my hands busy. The poor thing looks deformed, but I'm sure my first slide was rough, too 😄

Front angle of a rainbow T-Rex with 2 different sized arms

Side angle of rainbow T-Rex with all spikes being different shaped.