Diyendo Massilani

Diyendo Massilani is an Assistant Professor in Yale's Department of Genetics and an affiliate faculty member in Yale’s Department of Anthropology. His scientific journey began at the University of Health Sciences in Gabon, where he studied the chemical composition of local medicinal herbs and earned a Technical Degree in Medical Sciences in 2007. He continued his education at Sorbonne University in Paris, obtaining a Bachelor of Life Sciences in 2010 and a Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology specialty Genetics in 2012. In 2016, he earned a Ph.D. in Genomics from Paris Cité University, for his research on Bovid evolution, cattle domestication, and refining methods for ancient DNA extraction and Next Generation Sequencing. In 2017, Diyendo joined the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. There, he investigated archaic and early modern human populations and developed techniques for extracting ancient DNA from sediment using localized sampling of resin-impregnated sediment blocks. In 2022, Diyendo established his lab at Yale School of Medicine, where his research focuses on exploring the evolutionary history of human populations through ancient DNA, with an emphasis on migration patterns, human health history, and adaptations to environments and lifestyles.