Dr. Bayazit Yunusbayev received his Ph.D. degree in Genetics at the Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics (Ufa, Russia). In 2008 he joined the Evolutionary Biology group led by Prof Richard Villems at Estonian Biocentre, where he studied both neutral and adaptive aspects of human evolution. Since 2021 he is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, and ITMO University Fellow at SCAMT Institute, ITMO University.

Dr. Yunusbayev is interested in understanding the evolutionary history of modern humans and how this shaped the diversity of phenotypes observed in contemporary populations. His expertise is in population genetics, and he uses next-generation sequencing to characterize human genomic variation. Bayazit uses coalescent simulations and computational tools based on principles of population genetics to understand human population history. His current research focus is to understand how human evolutionary history shaped disease-related traits. Specifically, how pathogen-driven selection shaped immune-related phenotypes and autoimmune diseases. For this, he uses human cell culture and immunological experiments.