The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” according to the organisation.
The prestigious award was announced by the the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden on Monday. Pääbo’s research into ancient genes and the establishment of a new scientific discipline, paleogenomics, has been seminal in the quest to discover more about humanity’s origins.
For example, Pääbo accomplished the sequencing of the genome of present-day human’s extinct relative, the Neanderthal; discovered Denisova, an unknown hominin (“the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors,” according to the Australian Museum); and determined how ancient genes transferred from hominins to homo sapiens (that’s us) and how it affects our physiological makeup.
Last year’s winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, the scientists who discovered how our bodies feel hugs and heat.
Pääbo is the first Nobel Prize winner for 2022. The awards for Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economic Sciences and the always anticipated Nobel Peace Prize to be given out this week and next.
If you want to watch it all happen live, you can stream the Nobel Prize announcements on YouTube.
