The winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine is the Swede Svante Paabo for his discoveries on human evolution.
Paabo, 67, is one of the founders of paleogenetics: by extracting DNA from the fossils of primitive people and reconstructing it despite age, damage suffered and contamination, he managed to create a family tree of our ancestors and the reconstructed history with the Archeology to complete remains.
(afp)
Paabo coordinated the research project that led to the complete sequencing of Neanderthals in 2009, confirming that part of their genes are also present in modern humans. One of the things discovered during the pandemic was that the presence or absence of some Neanderthal genes affects how our immune systems respond to the coronavirus.
He analyzed the bone of a finger recovered in Siberia dating back 40,000 years ago and demonstrated the existence of a new human species, the Denisovana.
Relations between archaeologists and paleoanthropologists have not always been idyllic, but in recent years paleogenetics has become a mature discipline, able to add its pieces to ancient human history, especially when it comes to the relationships between the different families to reconstruct ancient men, their genealogical relationships and their migrations. Paabo currently heads the genetics department at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, but is also a member of the Accademia dei Lincei in Italy. “It is an honor to have him among our foreign members,” commented the President of the Academy, Roberto Antonelli.
When Paabo began to work on paleogenomics, it was not yet known whether and for how many years the DNA molecule would stand the test of time. By contacting an old professor of Egyptology, secretly from the professor who followed him for his PhD in cell biology, Paabo managed to obtain a fragment of a mummy from a museum in East Berlin. Analysis of his DNA landed on the cover of Nature in 1985.
One of the leading experts in evolutionary biology at the time, Allan Wilson from Berkeley, wrote to Paabo and asked him to welcome him to his laboratory for a sabbatical. Paabo, who was only a graduate student, replied that he didn’t have a lab. And he asked if he wouldn’t rather be welcomed as a student at Berkeley.
His work, the jury explained, was recognized because it “uncovered the genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominids. His findings laid the foundation for research into what makes us humans so unique.” Paabo is also famous among researchers for his Hawaiian shirts and habit of wearing Bermuda shorts to work in the lab.
Paabo says his passion for archeology was born in him during a trip to Egypt at age 13 with his mother, who was into chemistry. At that time he dreamed of becoming a kind of Indiana Jones, then he enrolled at Uppsala University and got his medical degree with a specialization in cell biology, but he did not fail to study Coptic, Latin and hieroglyphics.
His father, Sune Bergstrom, also won the 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine, but Paabo bears his mother’s name because his parents’ relationship was unofficial.
Last year’s award went to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries on how the human body senses temperature and touch. An election related to the pandemic was expected this year, but, as always, the representatives of the Nobel Committee postponed all predictions.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, the physics prize will be announced, which last year went to our Giorgio Parisi, among others. Chemistry is on Wednesday morning, literature on Thursday and peace on Friday. The Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced next Monday, October 10th.
The winners share a sum of 10 million Swedish kroner (920,000 euros) for each discipline. The award procedures were set by the Swedish inventor (including his patent on dynamite), Alfred Nobel.
Fearing being remembered for inventing an instrument of destruction, Nobel wrote in his will that the award would go to the person “who has contributed most to the good of mankind”.