Evolution * Phylogenetics * Biodiversity * Conservation
About The Lab
My lab is fundamentally interested in the evolution of marine invertebrates with an emphasis on decapod crustaceans. We use morphological and molecular techniques to address questions related to their relationships, origins, biogeography, biodiversity, ecology, taxonomy, and conservation. My main research objectives include 1) decapod phylogenetics and genomics, 2) the evolution of systems and structures (ex. bioluminescence, vision, color), and 3) the identification of key morphological traits that promote diversification and speciation within this group.
Heather Bracken-Grissom, PhD
Associate Professor
Institute of Environment, Division of Coastlines and Oceans
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Florida International University-Biscayne Bay Campus
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Follow @BrackenGrissom on Twitter for the latest lab updates!
Latest CRUSTOMICS Lab News:
Spring 2020
HBG part of a research team to discover interactions between a pelagic shark and giant cephalopod! Read more here!
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SQUID-iculously cool!
Spring 2020
Robert was awarded NSF GRFP!
CRUSTOMICS lab keeping up the good work!
Spring 2020
Good news train continues. Congrats to Robb on receiving the DYF fellowship!
Spring 2020
Lori has received an extension to her Distinguished Postdoc Fellowship at FIU to stay 1 more year!
Spring 2020
Congrats to PhD student Jorge Perez Moreno for successfully defending his dissertation on the evolution and vision of cave crutaceans!
Carlos and Robb rocked it at Biosymposium this year! Carlos killed his poster presentation and Robb was awarded with best talk! Way to go, guys!
Spring 2020
CRUSTOMICS lab well represented at an outreach function with the Miami Heat and FIU!
Spring 2020
Spring 2020
The Bracken-Grissom lab was well represented at Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology 2020! HBG, Danielle, Lori, and Lauren all gave sea-riously impressive presentations!
Fall 2019
HBG and Lori set sail on the Journey into Midnight research mission during which the reserach team captured video of the elusive giant squid! Watch the video and read more here!
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Fall 2019
The CRUSTOMICS lab and Harvard University awarded new NSF grant (DEB) to study Crab Tree of Life and how crabs became "crabby"!
Fall 2019
CRUSTOMICS lab welcomes undergraduate Stormie Collins as the new lab manager!
Summer 2019
The CRUSTOMICS Lab celebrates cataloguing its 10,000th crustacean specimen! With records dating back nearly 75 years, this milestone accomplishment is one to remember!
Spring 2019
The Bracken-Grissom Spring 2019 Potluck goes in the books as a crabtastic success! Delicious food, beautiful weather, and clawfully good company! It doesn't get any better than that.
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Work it, Robb! You're really krillin it....
Spring 2018
The first PhD student, Laura Timm, graduates from the HBG lab and has accepted a post-doc in David Pollock's lab at UC Denver!
Spring 2018
Postdoc, Danielle DeLeo, and PI HBG receive NSF grant to host the 3rd annual Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance in Curacao! DeLeo also successful in helping obtain a shiptime grant to help co-teach Oceanography at Sea at FIU!
Spring 2017
Congrats to Jorge Perez Moreno for receiving NSF DDIG grant to study cave crustaceans!
July 2016
Check out our bioluminescence BLOG blog under the "more options" from this summers research cruise into the FL Straits as part of NSF funded research to study bioluminescence and vision
Congrats to Jorge Perez Moreno for his new paper entitled: Life in the Underworld: Anchialine Cave Biology in th era of speleogenomics! Check out our publications page to download
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Summer 2016
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February 2016
Congratulations to PhD candidate Laura Timm for being selected as a 2016 GOMRI Scholar AND winning 3rd place with her poster "Diversity and connectivity of a mesopelagic shrimp as proxies for ecosystem health and recovery in the Gulf of Mexico" at this year's FIU's Biosymposium!
August 2015
PI HBG received an NSF grant to study the evolution of deep sea bioluminescence and vision with Megan Porter (University of Hawaii) and Tammy Frank (NOVA). Looking forward to some exciting research!
Image credit Sönke Johnsen.
PhD Student Robb Ditter's research on enigmatic cave shrimp featured in Caribbean Correspondence. Check it out!
August 2015
July 2015
PI BG and PhD student, Jorge Perez Moreno are setting sail on July 14th to search for new sources of deep sea bioluminescence in the Gulf of Mexico
Image credit Bioluminescence 2009 Expedition, NOAA/OER.
