Establishing a new field of science to answer the question of what makes humans unique from our extinct relatives has earned Svante Pääbo the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
“Humanity has always been intrigued by its origins. How are we related to the people who came before and where did we come from? What makes us different from hominins that went extinct?” said Anna Wedell, a member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm that announced the prize on October 3.
Before Pääbo’s work, archaeologists and paleontologists studied bones and artifacts to learn about human evolution. But the surface study of those relics couldn’t answer some fundamental questions about the genetic changes that led humans to thrive while other ancient hominids went extinct. Pääbo, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, worked out A method to extract DNA from ancient bones and analyze it (SN: 11/15/06). This led to the discovery of small genetic differences between extinct human relatives and humans.
Once, it was impossible to get DNA from ancient bone fragments, says Leslie Vosshall. He is a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University and vice president and chief scientific office at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Many scientists believed that DNA would eventually break down, and there wouldn’t be any in fossils older than tens to thousands of years. The ancient genetic material can be contaminated by DNA from bacteria, other microbes, and living organisms. Yet Pääbo managed to stitch together tiny fragments of Neandertal DNA into readable sequences. Paabo started with DNA from mitochondria (the energy-generating organelles within cells). Next, he created a complete genetic instruction manual, or genome for a Neandertal.
Over the years Vosshall watched as Pääbo presented snippets of DNA from old bones at scientific meetings. “Nobody believed him. Everyone thought it was contamination or broken stuff” from living people. “Just the mere fact that he did it was so improbable. That he was able to get the complete genome sequence of a Neandertal was viewed, even up until he did it, as an absolutely impossible feat.”
“On a technical basis, the prize is also richly deserved,” she says.
Noted Nils-Göran Larsson, vice chairman of the Nobel committee: “This is a very fundamental, big discovery… Over the years to come, [this] will give huge insights into human physiology.”
Pääbo’s work established the field of paleogenomics. “He always pushed the frontiers of evolutionary anthropology,” says Ludovic Orlando, a molecular archaeologist at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France.
Pääbo said that when he got the news of his win, he thought at first it was an “elaborate prank” by the people in his research group, but soon realized it was the real deal. “The thing that is amazing to me is that we now have some ability to go back in time and actually follow genetic history and genetic changes over time,” he said in a news conference several hours after the prize was announced.
Pääbo and colleagues have made surprising discoveries about human evolution from studying ancient DNA. They discovered that Neandertals and humans had children together, which is a surprising discovery. This is how it works.The discovery was shockingEven people who were looking for signs and symptoms of interbreeding (SN: 5/6/10). There is ample evidence to support this mixingMany people still have it (SN: 10/10/17).
Pääbo’s study of a finger bone revealed Denisovans, an extinct human relative previously unknown, was discovered. (SN: 8/30/12). Denisovans are interbred with human beings just as Neandertals were.
The DNA that was passed on from the extinct ancestors has had a profound impact on human health and physiology, for better or worse. Denisovans have inherited genetic variants that helped humanity.High altitude adaptabilityTibet (SN: 7/2/14). However, some Neandertal DNA has been linked with a Higher risk of some diseasesIncludes severe COVID-19 (SN: 2/11/16; SN: 10/2/20).
His work also explores tiny genetic differences that could have an impact on our ability to recognize them. Influenced the evolution of our brains (SN: 2/26/15). Other researchers have also applied techniques Pääbo developed to study Evolution and domestication (SN: 7/6/17Learn more The ancient movement of humans around the world.
“He’s a singular scientist,” Vosshall says.
He’s not the only one in his family to win a Nobel Prize, though. Pääbo’s father, Sune Bergström, shared the medicine Nobel Prize 1982SN: 10/16/82).
Pääbo will take home prize money of 10 million Swedish kronor, roughly $895,000 as of October 3.
