Cells in a zebrafish embryo videoed through a microscope. There are neurons, immune cells, and muscle cells among others. Two cells die. Can you find them? Video length: 6.5 hours. #CellBiology
Dylan Burnette
@mag2art.bsky.social
Cell biologist studying how the cells in a heart grow and die, and other cellular curiosities. Associate Professor at Vanderbilt. https://lab.vanderbilt.edu/dylan-burnette-lab/
My 1st Nikon Small World Reject of 2026 :-) A heart muscle cell photographed through a microscope. Alpha actinin 2 and beta myosin II are shown. #CellBiology
Blood cells flowing next to a developing spinal cord in a zebrafish embryo videoed through a microscope. #CellBiology
A neuronal growth cone photographed through a microscope. Microtubules and actin filaments are shown. Technique: DIC and widefield fluorescence microscopy. #CellBiology
A cell videoed through a DIC microscope. The nucleus spins around. Why would it do that? #CellBiology
A large extracellular vesicle or a happy little demon? Can't a blebbisome be both? Spinning disk confocal microscopy. 15x15 micron field of view. #CellBiology #LargeEV
Two cells videoed through a microscope. One has big membrane blebs (right) and one has little membrane blebs (left). What do they have in common. They will be dead soon...... #CellBiology #Apoptosis
A large extracellular vesicle, called a "blebbisome," videoed through a microscope. Want to make your blebbisomes extra blebby like this one? Stress them out. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CellBiology
Membrane blebs form surprisingly fast. This spinning-disk confocal movie of a particularly "blebby" cell was captured over just 35 seconds in real time. Shown here is a single optical (Z) slice. #CellBiology
Breast cancer cells videoed through a microscope for 4 minutes. #CellBiology
Mitochondria in a crawling fibroblast cell videoed through a spinning disk confocal microscope by Burnette Lab member, Atsuko Price. #CellBiology
Mitochondria in a living cell, imaged today while I was training new lab members on our spinning-disk confocal microscope. Shown are the full cell and zoomed-in regions of interest. Total imaging time: 60 minutes. #CellBiology
Mitochondria in two cells videoed through a spinning disk confocal microscope. #CellBiology
A control cell going through cell division with normal membrane blebs (top) and a cell we messed with (bottom). Both were videoed through a DIC microscope. #CellBiology www.molbiolcell.org/doi/full/10....
Not all cells do the whole membrane blebbing thing the same. Some of them get weird about it. This is a single cell videoed through a DIC microscope. #CellBiology
Actin filament-based structures in a cell photographed using structured illumination microscopy. The video starts with the bottom of the cell and steps up through the Z dimension (i.e., going up from the substrate). #CellBiology rupress.org/jcb/article/...
Microtubules (green) fighting retrograde actin flow (magenta) in a neuronal growth cone videoed through a TIRF microscope. #CellBiology
The newest episode of Nikon's Small World Speaks. "Dylan Burnette (that's me) shares some of the stories behind one of his favorite images he's submitted to the Nikon Small World competition to date." #CellBiology
This was my first journal cover from back in the day. It shows the side of a neuronal growth cone photographed with an electron microscope. The microtubules (green) were labeled with nanoscale particles of colloidal gold bound to antibodies (i.e., immunogold). #CellBiology
A dividing cell videoed through a microscope. Hot tip: Don't mess around with myosin II paralogs if you don't want your cells to freak out. #CellBiology www.cell.com/cell-reports...
The inside of a heart muscle cell photographed with an electron microscope. The powerhouses/overlords of the cell, mitochondria, are shown in pink. The repeating structures are the basic units of contraction that drive each heart beat (i.e., sarcomeres). #CellBiology
The heart of a zebrafish embryo photographed through a microscope. (Ventricle: Left; Atrium: Right). The nuclei of both the heart cells and blood cells are shown. "What? Red blood cells do not have nuclei!", you say. So human centric of you...... #CellBiology
Immature heart muscle cells photographed through a microscope. Nuclei (yellow/green) and the molecular motor driving muscle contraction, myosin II (purple/blue), are shown. #CellBiology
Neuronal growth cones at the end of neurites (immature neural extensions that have yet to turn into axons or dendrites) videoed through a microscope. #CellBiology
Cover image for "The microtubule GTP-tubulin cap size is modulated during cell division" by Anna Cassidy! I know it says "May 1, 2026", but it is already online so here it is! www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/...
