STEVE JENNINGS/Getty Images via AFP
Svante Pääbo, here in 2016, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
HEALTH – The Nobel Season is open. This Monday, October 3, the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Swede Svante Pääbo for “his discoveries on the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.”
“By uncovering the genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominids, his findings have laid the foundation for exploring what makes us humans such unique beings,” said the jury of the scientist who analyzed the Neanderthal genome sequenced and established paleogenomics.
Paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo succeeds Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, who received awards in 2021 for their discovery of “temperature and touch receptors”.
Medicine opens the Nobel Prizes, the winners of which will be announced in the next eight days. The next rewards will be given according to the following schedule:
- Physics, Tuesday, October 4, 11:45 am
- Chemistry, Wednesday, October 5, 11:45 am
- Literature, Thursday, October 6, 1 p.m
- Peace, Friday, October 7 at 11 a.m
- Economy, Monday 10 October at 11:45 am
Ten years of prizewinners in medicine
Ahead of David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian in 2021, here are the winners of the last ten medical awards:
- 2020: Michael Houghton (UK), Harvey J. Alter (USA) and Charles M. Rice (USA) for their role in discovering the virus responsible for hepatitis C.
- 2019: William Kaelin (USA), Gregg Semenza (USA) and Peter Ratcliffe (UK) for their work on the adaptation of cells to different oxygen levels in the body, which opens up perspectives in the treatment of cancer and anemia.
- 2018: James P. Allison (USA) and Tasuku Honjo (Japan) for their research on immunotherapy, which has been shown to be particularly effective in treating virulent cancers.
- 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young (USA), who dismantled the complex mechanisms of the biological clock.
- 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi (Japan) for his work on autophagy, a process by which our cells digest their own waste and which, when malfunctioning, triggers Parkinson’s disease or diabetes.
- 2015: William Campbell (Ireland/USA), Satoshi Omura (Japan) and Tu Youyou (China) for their discoveries in treating parasitic infections and malaria.
- 2014: John O’Keefe (UK/USA) and May-Britt and Edvard Moser (Norway) for their research into the brain’s “internal GPS” which may enable advances in knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease.
- 2013: James Rothman, Randy Schekman, and Thomas Südhof (USA) for their discoveries on intracellular transport that improve knowledge of diseases such as diabetes.
- 2012: Shinya Yamanaka (Japan) and John Gurdon (UK) for their work on the reversibility of stem cells, making it possible to generate all types of tissue in the human body.
Born more than 120 years ago into the optimism of the Belle Époque, the Nobel Prize winners are once again confronted with the shift between the celebration of the “benefactors of humanity” and a particularly tragic year, notably the war in Ukraine.
See also The HuffPost: The Nobel Prizes Told in Comics
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