Welcome: Dr. Melissa DeBiasse joins the Ryan Lab

Welcome: Dr. Melissa DeBiasse joins the Ryan Lab

Published: Sunday, September 18, 2016

Dr. Melissa DeBiasse is an evolutionary ecologist and is interested in the processes that generate biodiversity in the ocean. Her research examines the distribution of genetic and phenotypic variation within and among populations in marine invertebrates. Melissa grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio but hasn’t lived north of I-10 in 13 years. She has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Indiana University and a Master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University. Melissa earned her PhD from Louisiana State University in 2014 under the mentorship of Michael Hellberg. Her dissertation research used model-based methods to test hypotheses of historical demography and species boundaries in the Caribbean coral reef sponge Callyspongia. For the last two years, Melissa has been a postdoc in Morgan Kelly’s lab at LSU working on projects testing the genomic and phenotypic responses of marine invertebrates (sponges, corals, and copepods) to environmental stressors using experimental and next generation sequencing approaches. She now joins Whitney Laboratory as a postdoc working with Dr. Joseph Ryan on the Diversity, Evolution, and EcoPhysiology of Ctenophores (DEEPC) Project. She will use genomic and transcriptomic data to understand adaptation and diversification in ctenophores across deep and shallow environments. When she’s not doing science, Melissa likes to run, crossfit, bake, sew, and read.