Svante Pääbo, pictured in 2018, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday.
Photo: Christian Charisius/DPA/ZUMA PRESS
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sweden-born geneticist Svante Pääbo, recognizing him for discoveries related to the genomes of extinct human groups that shed light on the genetic characteristics unique to present-day humans.
The committee said Dr. Pääbo overcame challenges in recovering and analyzing ancient DNA to sequence the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. He also discovered a previously unknown human relative, called the Denisova. He is based at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.
Sequencing those genomes provided a crucial reference point for scientists in understanding the genetic divergence that make Homo sapiens unique, the committee said. Dr. Pääbo’s work laid the foundations for a new field of science known as genomic paleontology, or the use of genetic analysis to shed light on human evolution. “By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human,” said the Nobel committee.
Before Dr. Pääbo’s research, understanding of Neanderthals came from analysis of the features of ancient bone remains and from studies of tools and other archaeological artifacts. The first skeletal remains identified as Neanderthal were found in 1856 in the Neanderthal valley in Germany. The Neanderthals inhabited modern-day Europe and Asia before facing extinction around 30,000 years ago.
Dr. Pääbo’s work made it possible to precisely analyze the genetic characteristics of Neanderthals and helped illuminate how different types of humans mixed on the planet during periods of coexistence.
The genetic sequence of a Neanderthal showed that Homo sapiens had children with their now-extinct relatives during the at least 20,000-year period when both groups inhabited the same part of the planet. Homo sapiens appeared in Africa around 300,000 years ago and began to migrate into the Middle East around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.
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