Svante Pääbo awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022

Svante Pääbo, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”. Apart from being a brilliant scientist, he is also a member of the SciLifeLab International Advisory Board (IAB).

Svante Pääbo has conducted ground-breaking research by sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, and made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin; Denisova. He also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago.

Pääbo’s research has given rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics. By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.

“The Nobel Assembly has made an excellent choice in Svante Pääbo. Few scientists have so deeply transformed our understanding of humanity and our origins. His work has transformed an entire field of research, and we are proud to offer his methods to a wider scientific community”, comments Magnus Lundgren, head of SciLifeLab infrastructure unit Ancient DNA.

Press release from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet