Crombie Lab
The Crombie Lab works primarily with Caenorhabditis elegans , a small free-living nematode species that has been central to four Noble prizes!
Research projects in the lab are focused on understanding how evolution has shaped the patterns of natural genetic diversity in the species and learning about the roles specific genetic variants play in influencing traits related to human health, such as enironmental toxicant susceptability.
Positions
We are currently interested in recruiting motivated undergraduates and graduate students.
Undergraduates: Please e-mail Dr. Crombie with your resume and a paragraph describing your specific interest in the lab. Undergraduates should be willing to devote a minimum of 10 hours a week during the semester.
Graduate Students: Prospective MS or PhD students, please email Dr. Crombie describing your interest in the lab and explore admissions to the Cell and Molecular Biology Program offered through Florida Tech’s Biomedical Sciences program.
news
| Aug 14, 2026 | The Crombie Lab and Borgen Lab received a $9,700 Florida Tech Provost Seed Grant for “Developing a genetic mapping platform to identify modifiers of Parkinson’s-associated dopaminergic neurodegeneration.” |
|---|---|
| Aug 12, 2026 | Our collaborative paper, “Population structure and punctuated genomic hyper-diversity in Caenorhabditis briggsae”, is published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. Large-scale wild-strain genomics reveals population structure and highly divergent genomic regions. |
| Jul 28, 2026 | Our collaborative paper, “Global genomic diversity of the selfing nematode Caenorhabditis tropicalis correlates with geography”, is published in GENETICS. Genome-wide variation reveals geographic population structure and concentrated regions of extreme sequence diversity. |
| Jun 12, 2026 | The Crombie Lab received a three-year, $439,974 NIH R15 award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for “Identifying the genetic determinants of insecticide response variation to advance human risk assessment” (award R15ES038678). |
| May 30, 2026 | Brianna Wallace received the Outstanding Graduate Poster Award at the 2026 Florida Worm Meeting. Congratulations! |
| May 01, 2026 | Kelsey Fox received the 2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award from both the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Science (BES) and the Department of Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences (OEMS) at Florida Tech. Congratulations! |
| May 01, 2026 | Congratulations to Brianna Wallace on receiving the 2026 Honors College Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award! |
| Mar 20, 2026 | Congratulations to Lianie Boldus and Kelsey Fox on their 2026 Outstanding Poster Award in the Biology Section at the Florida Academy of Science meeting (co-authors)! |
| Mar 20, 2026 | Brianna Wallace received the Outstanding Graduate Poster Award in the Medical Sciences Section at the 2026 Florida Academy of Science meeting. Congratulations! |
| Mar 02, 2026 | Our paper, “Natural variation suggests candidate genes underlying Caenorhabditis elegans susceptibility to diverse toxicants”, appears in Toxicological Sciences. Screening 195 wild strains against 23 toxicants identified genomic regions and candidate genes associated with susceptibility differences. |
| Feb 01, 2026 | Congratulations to Michaela Foley on being named the 2025 Outstanding Graduate Student in Florida Tech’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Science! |
| Jan 20, 2026 | Our review, “High-Throughput Toxicity Screening with C. elegans: Current Platforms, Key Advantages, and Future Directions”, appears in Environmental Science & Technology. We evaluate automated nematode toxicity assays and opportunities to expand their use in chemical screening. |
| Jan 01, 2026 | Kelsey Fox was selected as a 2026 institutional nominee for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship at Florida Tech. Congratulations, Kelsey! |
| Nov 01, 2025 | Congratulations to Kelsey Fox on receiving the Richard Lincoln Turner Scholar Award! |
| Aug 11, 2025 | The Crombie Lab received a $12,000 Florida Tech Provost Seed Grant for the collaborative project “Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms of impact-induced brain trauma—A synergy between biomedical engineering and science.” |
| May 10, 2025 | Congratulations to Michaela Foley on graduating from Florida Tech! Her dissertation was entitled “Developing a small molecule to inhibit HSF1 expression in cancer and evaluating natural genetic variation in small molecule toxicity.” |
| Mar 21, 2025 | Rohan Surapaneni received the Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Award at the 2025 Florida Academy of Science meeting. Congratulations! |
| Mar 21, 2025 | Brianna Wallace received the Outstanding Graduate Poster Award in the Medical Sciences Section at the 2025 Florida Academy of Science meeting. Congratulations! |
| Mar 02, 2025 | Congratulations to Rohan Surapaneni on being accepted to the University of Wisconsin’s Genetics Department! |
| Mar 01, 2025 | Congratulations to Pia Scarpino on being accepted to the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama, where she will join Guy Caldwell’s lab! |
| Jan 22, 2025 | Our collaborative paper, “Geographical patterns of intraspecific genetic diversity reflect the adaptive potential of the coral Pocillopora damicornis species complex”, is published in PLOS ONE. The study examines geographic variation in coral genetic diversity and its potential relevance to climate resilience. |
| Jan 10, 2025 | Brianna Wallace joins the Crombie Lab as a PhD student. Welcome, Brianna! |
| Dec 14, 2024 | Congratulations to Macy on graduating from Florida Tech! Macy’s research was titled “Investigation of Reproductive Inhibition during Chronic Heat Stress in C. elegans.” |
| Nov 01, 2024 | Congratulations to Pia Scarpino on receiving the Richard Lincoln Turner Scholar Award! |
| Aug 14, 2024 | Our paper, “Direct inference of the distribution of fitness effects of spontaneous mutations from recombinant inbred Caenorhabditis elegans mutation accumulation lines”, is published in GENETICS. Recombinant inbred lines help estimate how spontaneous mutations affect fitness. |
| Jan 05, 2024 | Our paper, “CaeNDR, the Caenorhabditis Natural Diversity Resource”, appears in the January 2024 issue of Nucleic Acids Research. The expanded resource supports natural-variation and genetic-mapping studies across three Caenorhabditis species. |
| Jan 01, 2024 | The Crombie Lab website is live! |