Status: 10.03.2022 11:54 am
What makes us uniquely human? Svante Pääbo did groundbreaking research, including sequencing the Neanderthal genome. The Swede, who conducts research in Leipzig, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work.
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Svante Pääbo, from Leipzig, for his discoveries about human evolution. The announcement was made by the Karolinska Institute.
Pääbo is honored for his insights into human evolution. He is director and scientific fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and was the first researcher to sequence the Neanderthal genome, among other things.
New scientific discipline
His groundbreaking research led to the new scientific discipline of paleogenomics, the committee said in its rationale. By uncovering genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominids, their findings provided the basis for exploring what makes humans uniquely human.
“Overwhelmed, speechless and overjoyed”
Pääbo was “overwhelmed, speechless and overjoyed” on the phone, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Thomas Perlmann, reported in the announcement. Pääbo asked if he could tell anyone about the award before it was announced. He then told him it was okay to tell his wife about it, Perlmann said.
Gifted with ten million crowns
The most important award for doctors this year is 10 million Swedish kronor (approximately 920,000 euros). Since 1901, 224 people have been awarded 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 researcher Ardem Patapoutian received the award. The two discovered cell receptors that humans use to sense temperature and touch.
Awarded December 10th
The Nobel Prize series began with the Medicine Prize. The winners of the Physics and Chemistry Awards will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. Announcements for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace will take place on Thursday and Friday. The series ends next Monday with the so-called Nobel Prize in Economics, donated by the Swedish Reichsbank.
The ceremonial delivery of all prizes traditionally takes place on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the donor of the Alfred Nobel Prize. Last Thursday, the Right Livelihood Foundation announced the winners of this year’s Alternative Nobel Prizes.