Sweden
Medicine Nobel Prize for evolutionary researchers
He decoded the genome of Neanderthals: Svante Pääbo will receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine this year. photo
© Frank Vinken For Max-Planck-Gese/digital/AP/dpa
Svante Pääbo has devoted himself to questions about human evolution for many years. His great achievements are now being crowned with the prize for researchers.
He was the first to sequence the genome of Neanderthals and discovered Denisovans: The Swedish evolutionary researcher Svante Pääbo, who works in Leipzig, received the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for his research on the evolution of humans and their extinct relatives.
This was announced by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday. Pääbo is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA). One of his most important research results is the knowledge that traces of the Neanderthals’ genome can still be found in the DNA of humans today – the two species had reproduced with each other during their time together on earth.
Svante Pääbo is an exceptional researcher
“The question of where we come from and what makes us unique has occupied mankind since time immemorial,” writes the Nobel Committee in its justification for the award. The committee believes that Pääbo’s work in uncovering genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from the extinct hominins provides the basis for answering these questions.
The Max Planck Society expressed its joy at the award on Twitter with a long series of smileys. “Speechless! Happy! We’re pinching ourselves!” (Speechless! HAPPY! Pinching ourselves!). “His work has revolutionized our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern humans,” said Martin Stratmann, President of the Max Planck Society. In Stockholm, the announcement was enthusiastically received, especially by Swedish reporters. “This is fantastic,” whispered a reporter in the lecture hall.
The first thing Pääbo did after the shock of the news had worn off was to ask if he could share the news with his wife Linda, the Nobel Committee reported. He was allowed to.
The exceptional researcher, who received the news of his Nobel Prize over a morning cup of coffee, had explored the possibility of studying Neanderthal DNA early in his scientific career. The problem: DNA is a very unstable molecule and breaks down into smaller and smaller fragments over time. Nevertheless, the paleogeneticist succeeded in isolating and analyzing Neanderthal genetic material from ancient bone fragments. In 2010 he presented a first version of the Neanderthal genome. Comparisons with the genome of modern humans showed, among other things, that around 1 to 4 percent of the genome of people of European or Asian origin goes back to Neanderthals. Homo sapiens and Homo neandertalensis must have fathered children together – a groundbreaking finding.
Genetic traces influence human health
Another milestone in his career was the discovery of the so-called Denisova man. In 2008, a small 40,000-year-old finger bone fragment was found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia. Research showed that the human DNA sequence differed from that of Neanderthals and modern humans – another early human species had been discovered. Traces of the genome of Denisovans can also be found in the genome of modern humans. According to the Nobel Committee, this was first recognized in people from Melanesia and other parts of Southeast Asia.
The genetic traces of our extinct relatives still influence human health today. For example, there are Neanderthal genes that affect the immune response in various infections, according to the Nobel Committee.
The most important award for physicians this year is endowed with ten million Swedish crowns (around 920,000 euros).
Since 1901, 224 people have received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, including 12 women. The first went to German bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Behring for discovering a therapy for diphtheria. In 1995 Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was the first and only German woman to receive this award.
Last year, David Julius (USA) and Lebanese-born researcher Ardem Patapoutian received the award. The two discovered cell receptors that humans use to sense temperature and touch.
The Nobel Prize series started with the Medicine Prize. The winners of the physics and chemistry prizes will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. The announcements for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace will follow on Thursday and Friday. The series ends on the following Monday, October 10th, with the so-called Nobel Prize for Economics donated by the Swedish Reichsbank.
The ceremonial presentation of all awards traditionally takes place on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the award donor Alfred Nobel.
Last Thursday, the Right Livelihood Foundation announced the winners of this year’s Alternative Nobel Prizes.