Yvonne Ukamaka Ajamma is a molecular biologist and geneticist at the Helmholtz-Institute for One Health. She applies molecular diagnostics, genomics, and One Health approaches to identify zoonotic pathogens and aid the surveillance of infectious diseases.

She holds her doctorate in Genetics from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), during which she was affiliated to the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya and investigated the population genetics of arbovirus vectors on segregated islands. She later managed bioinformatics projects aimed at malaria drug discovery and insecticidal targets at Covenant University Bioinformatics Research (CUBRe) in Ogun State, Nigeria. Additionally, she was one of the pioneers that established the Covenant Applied Informatics and Communication Africa Centre of Excellence (CApIC-ACE) for training and research on malaria drug candidates and cancer diagnostic biomarkers. Afterwards, she investigated the vector competence of mosquito species for West Nile virus in high security biosafety levels 2 and 3 laboratories at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in Greifswald, Germany with a Georg Forster Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 

In 2024, Yvonne joined the Department of Pathogen Evolution (PAEV) at the Helmholtz-Institute for One Health (HIOH), where she investigates the molecular diversity and evolution of zoonotic pathogens from both ancient and modern sample types using molecular diagnostics and genomic approaches. She supports other projects across HIOH Departments with molecular biology, coupled with diagnostics for pathogen surveillance and field-deployable sequencing technologies and workflow. She works with interdisciplinary and international research collaborators to translate scientific findings into practical solutions that support public, animal, and environmental health.

Thus far, her research combines molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and evolutionary approaches to better understand zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Some of her research includes host-vector-pathogen interactions, pathogen surveillance, biodiversity monitoring, population genetics, and the development of molecular tools for infectious disease detection using PCR-based diagnostics, DNA barcoding, Sanger sequencing, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and high-throughput molecular analyses.