Swedish geneticist wins medicine Nobel for Neanderthal research

A Swedish scientist who sequenced 바카라사이트 genome of a?Neanderthal has been awarded 바카라사이트 Nobel Prize in?Physiology or?Medicine.

Svante P??bo, director of 바카라사이트 department of genetics at 바카라사이트 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, was named 바카라사이트 first Nobel laureate of 2022 for his ¡°pioneering research¡± using genetics to study early humans ¨C a field known as ¡°palaeogenetics¡±.

As a professor at 바카라사이트 University of Munich in 바카라사이트 1990s, Professor P??bo sequenced a region of mitochondrial DNA from a 40,000-year-old piece of bone, confirming for 바카라사이트 first time that Neanderthals and humans were genetically distinct.

By 2009, he had sequenced an entire genome of a Neanderthal ¨C more than 3?million pairs in total.

In 2010, he made headlines for having used DNA analysis to identify 바카라사이트 finger bone discovered in a cave in Siberia as belonging to a previously unknown type of human, known as Denisova.

Professor P??bo¡¯s work also showed that ancient Neanderthals had sex and children with Homo sapiens ¨C debunking speculation that Neanderthals and modern-day humans lived entirely apart ¨C following 바카라사이트 migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago.

This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, including for how our immune system reacts to infections, 바카라사이트 Nobel committee said. About 1?per cent to 4?per cent of human DNA comes from Neanderthals, affecting how humans respond to disease.

¡°By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide 바카라사이트 basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human,¡± 바카라사이트 Nobel committee said.

The Stockholm-born researcher ¨C whose fa바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 biochemist Sune Bergstr?m, won 바카라사이트 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 ¨C took his PhD at Uppsala University in Sweden and moved to Germany in 1990. He established his own Max Planck Institute in 1997, and is also a professor at 바카라사이트 Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan.

jack.grove@ws-2000.com