My research focuses on human evolution, with a particular attention to the processes (cultural and historical) that have shaped the distribution of genetic variation across human populations. Current projects address the historical events that led to the peopling of the Mediterranean region and the European continent, and the pattern of migration and admixture in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Marks SJ, Montinaro F, Levy H, Brisighelli F, Ferri G, Bertoncini S, Batini C, Busby GB, Arthur C, Mitchell P, Stewart BA, Oosthuizen O, Oosthuizen E, D'Amato ME, Davison S, Pascali V, Capelli C. Static and Moving Frontiers: The Genetic Landscape of Southern African Bantu-Speaking Populations. Mol Biol Evol. 2014 in press Hellenthal G, Busby GB, Band G, Wilson JF, Capelli C, Falush D, Myers S. A genetic atlas of human admixture history. Science. 2014 Feb 14;343(6172):747-51 Marks SJ, Levy H, Martinez-Cadenas C, Montinaro F, Capelli C.Migration distance rather than migration rate explains genetic diversity in human patrilocal groups. Mol Ecol. (2012) 21(20):4958-69. Busby GB, Brisighelli F, Sánchez-Diz P, Ramos-Luis E, Martinez-Cadenas C, Thomas MG, Bradley DG, Gusmão L, Winney B, Bodmer W, Vennemann M, Coia V, Scarnicci F, Tofanelli S, Vona G, Ploski R, Vecchiotti C, Zemunik T, Rudan I, Karachanak S, Toncheva D, Anagnostou P, Ferri G, Rapone C, Hervig T, Moen T, Wilson JF, Capelli C. The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269. Proc Biol Sci. (2012) 279(1730):884-92. Batini C, Ferri G, Destro-Bisol G, Brisighelli F, Luiselli D, Sánchez-Diz P, Rocha J, Simonson T, Brehm A, Montano V, Elwali NE, Spedini G, D'Amato ME, Myres N, Ebbesen P, Comas D, Capelli C. Signatures of the preagricultural peopling processes in sub-Saharan Africa as revealed by the phylogeography of early Y chromosome lineages. Mol Biol Evol. (2011) 28(9):2603-13.