Unraveling the Genetic Tapestry of Southeast Asia

Our lab has a major research focus on the complex population history of Southeast Asia, a program led by the expertise of Dr. Piya Changmai. This work has illuminated the multiple, overlapping layers of migration and admixture that have formed the region’s rich diversity. Our investigations have included a detailed reconstruction of the genetic history of Kra-Dai speakers in Thailand, a project that has been supported by several research grants on which Dr. Changmai is the principal investigator.

Our research in this area has yielded several key findings. We have contributed to work documenting multiple distinct waves of migration throughout Southeast Asian prehistory, from the Neolithic through the Iron Age. In a particularly notable study, we used ancient DNA to pinpoint the arrival of South Asian ancestry in Cambodia, demonstrating admixture with local populations as early as the 1st to 3rd centuries CE — a finding that provides a firm chronological anchor for understanding the process of Indianization in the region. Further work has explored the deep Indian genetic heritage present in many modern Southeast Asian populations, connecting the genetic data to the historical and cultural processes of exchange and state formation that defined the region.