The jury at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm awarded Svante Pääbo the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for “his discoveries on the genome of extinct hominids and human evolution”.
Pääbo (Stockholm, Sweden, 65 years old) is a biologist, geneticist and head of the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (Germany). His work in rescuing genetic material from human fossils was crucial in discovering the genome of known extinct species like the Neanderthals, uncovering the existence of new species like the Denisovans, and confirming that Homo sapiens could have sex and have children with them others had species thousands of years ago, so their DNA is still present in populations today.
Pääbo’s “transcendental” work “has spawned a new scientific discipline: paleogenomics,” emphasized the jury. “By uncovering the genetic differences between present-day humans and extinct hominids, their discoveries allow us to examine what makes us truly human,” the award officials added in a press release. In 2018, Pääbo received the Princess of Asturias Prize for his work on human evolution.
The outage was announced after 11:30 a.m. Peninsula time today. The award is given by the jury of the Karolinska Institute near Stockholm (Sweden). The award is endowed with ten million Swedish crowns, around 985,000 euros.
Last year, the jury selected David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for discovering cell receptors for temperature and touch. American David Julius, a 67-year-old physiologist at the University of California, identified the sensor of nerve endings in the skin that respond to heat using capsaicin, a compound found in hot peppers. Ardem Patapoutian, a 46-year-old Armenian-American biologist and neuroscientist, discovered cellular sensors in the skin and also in internal organs that respond to pressure.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine is announced on the first Monday in October and this week opens the round of announcements that will continue on Tuesday with Physics, Wednesday with Chemistry, Thursday with Peace and finally Economics, which will be published on Monday next week .
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