Frank Beier
Researcher working on skeletal biology & #osteoarthritis. Chair of Physiology and Pharmacology @westernu. Living with stage 4 #AdenoidCysticCarcinoma. Interested in environment, EDI, & other woke things.
www.westernconnect.ca/beier
- Hi all. Frank passed peacefully with the love of his family on July 18, 2025 in London, ON. He was a wonderful human being who shared much of his life with you. We could not have asked for a better father, grandfather, friend, colleague, or mentor. 1/
- In his memory, Western has opened an equity-based graduate scholarship. Please consider supporting his final initiative if you are able: www.westernconnect.ca/beier ; thank you for all the time you spent and laughs you shared with him. We love and miss him so much already. - The Beiers
- Congratulations to PhysPharm department members Lisa and Taylor on these well deserved awards!!!
- Congratulations to the awardees of this years' Western Research Excellence Awards, who are each recognized for their scholarship, creativity and impact in their chosen fields: news.westernu.ca/2025/07/west...
- Wow! Amazing images! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... High-speed mapping of whole-mouse peripheral nerves at subcellular resolution: Cell @maximoprado.bsky.social @jointsintheworld.bsky.social
- Now that I am shedding most of my committee memberships, it is super tempting to delete the MS Teams app that I greatly dislike from all my devices. Give me one reason to keep it?
- Another update although not much has changed. Still expected to have 'a few months'. Oncologist feels like there is nothing he can do any more but we will try to keep me as comfortable & productive as possible with palliative care, oxygen, wheelchair etc.
- Will try to spend these last months on quality time with family & friends, getting my affairs in order, and working on a few graduate student thesis and manuscripts. It will not be boring.
- #Sunfest was always one of my favourite things in #Ldnont. This is very likely the last time I can be there. All the more thankful I am to the kids for taking me there in my new fancy wheels! PS5 from Naples playing here
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- I can hear that one very clearly from my balcony....
- Lots of visitors these days! Former PhD students and postdocs coming by from in and out of town. A sad occasion but great to see them all! Oh those memories.... sorry for the poor selfie skills....
- Nothing like a CT scan at 2:45 am to confirm you are dying..... to be fair they want to see if there is any chance for radiation to make a difference, but chances are slim. Anyway, thanks for taking me Aaron!
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- The Roglic ski jump/cycling combination appears even more astonishing to me
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- Congrats!!
- Today is my last day as Chair of Physiology and Pharmacology at @schulichmeddent.bsky.social @westernu.ca, after 7 years (1 yr acting, 5 in term 1, 1 in term 2). I would have loved to complete term 2 but my advancing cancer leaves me no choice. 1/
- This is a fantastic department, with great staff, faculty, and trainees. Thank you all for making this as enjoyable as it can be and for your cooperative spirit. Thanks also to my fellow basic science chairs for all the collaboration!
- The response to this - on here, by email, in person etc - was overwhelming. Sorry, I don't have the time to respond to everyone, but I read it all. Thank you so much. It feels good to know I made a bit of a difference.
- Cancer update. A bit darker than usual. Cancer has advanced and it looks like I only have a few months left. Took me a few days to get used to this new timeline. Time to start wrapping things up at home and at the lab. Thankfully there is little pain and I am relatively functional.
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- Thanks Fred!!
- Congrats to all!! What a great list of awardees.
- And today he convocated. Congrats Aaron!! Combined PT-PhD at @westernu.bsky.social next
- So proud of my son Aaron!
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- Congrats!!
- Heading home after 10 days in the hospital. Now let's see how that tube feeding will go :).
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- Great to see WIN engaged in osteoarthritis research!!! Inter-Institute collaboration!!!!
- Today, I take the reigns as Chair, Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard. Big thankyou to Dan Lieberman outgoing Chair & Joe Henrich, previous Chair. They did tremendous jobs advancing HEB's intellectual/academic vibrancy. I'll work hard for all students, postdocs & faculty in this changing landscape
- Congrats Terry!!! Great choice!!
- Update: feeding tube installation went well and seems to be working overall. However, the change in diet resulted in changes in my electrolytes, esp sodium. I need to stay in hospital until this normalizes. One week now and counting......
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- Congrats!!!
- Honoured to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Connective Tissue Society! A testament to the great work by our fantastic lab members and collaborators over the last 25 years or so. Thank you all!!
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- Happy Birthday Cindy!
- Happy Birthday!!
- Feeding tube is in. Now we will wait and see
- Cancer update. Since I finished chemotherapy last summer I am having major problems maintaining my weight. Down to 105 pounds and it is unsustainable - I have extremely low energy. So on Monday I will get a feeding tube installed. Hopefully this will make a difference. I will keep you posted.
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- A bit of problems with swallowing, very narrow mouth opening, all resulting in a complete absence of appetite. Eating is really hard work now.
- Wow!!
- New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team! Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05... Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Regulatory regions of GDF5 and risk for #osteoarthritis. Great new work by @clarissacoveney.bsky.social, @tdcapellini.bsky.social et al.
- 1) Despite the chaos, I am very pleased to present the terrific research conducted by my post-doc @clarissacoveney.bsky.social. acrjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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- Cool story!! Congrats!
- Congratulations to @maximoprado.bsky.social, PhD. He received the Distinguished Researcher Award as part of the 2025 @schulichmeddent.bsky.social Awards of Excellence handed out Monday night.
- Congrats Marco!!!!
- A great treat to have Dr. Veronique Lefebvre from CHOP and UPenn visit us to deliver the Dr. Suzanne Bernier Memorial Lecture. Thank you Veronique!!
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- Welcome!
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- Science and music!! Great combination
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- Maybe my memory tricks me, or maybe he is just going downhill. All this moving around is bad for sure.
- Done with all 42 meetings! Our teaching schedule for 2025/26 is more or less done. Thanks everyone for your cooperation!!!!
- Dr. Ono was actually a decent president at UBC if I remember correctly. So maybe there is hope
- CBC calls for a Liberal win tonight!!🇨🇦. Not sure yet whether majority or minority.
- Very early counts but it could be closer than expected. Please go out to vote in ON, QC, the west to keep the conservatives out of government!! 🇨🇦
- Vote today if you have not done it yet!!! It is up to us to keep the ultra right wing populists out of the Canadian government!!
- This is encouraging but don't let your guard down. Go vote tomorrow to keep the Conservatives out of power.
- EKOS Predicts Liberal Majority www.ekospolitics.com/index.php/20...
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- Twice (so far) I’ve had older male professors make misogynistic comments directly stating that things I have recently achieved (the award being one of them) are due to the success or influence of other men and not my own merit 2/
- So sorry Sarah. As your nominator I say clearly that I nominated you because of your accomplishments. Not anyone else's. You deserve this award so much!!! Send these guys my way
- I'm honoured to be in Korea this week to collect my Rising Star Award at #OARSI2025 Thank you so much to OARSI for this award, and @beierlab.bsky.social for generously nominating me. Having a wonderful time all round 🇰🇷
- Congrats Sarah!! So well deserved!!
