Medicine Nobel goes to Svante Pääbo. Details about his research

Nobel prize for medicine was won by Swedish academic Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”, according to a press release of The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, which gives out the Medicine prize annually. Medicine Nobel goes to Svante Pääbo. Details about his research.

In the October 3 press release, the assembly said: “Through his pioneering research, Svante Pääbo accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova.”The prize kicks off the week that will see the rest of the Nobel awards announcements. Medicine Nobel goes to Svante Pääbo. Details about his research.

What has the Medicine Nobel been awarded for?

This year, the focus of the committee seems to have been on human evolution and the role that it has played in shaping our health and biological systems over time. Svante Pääbo’s “seminal” discoveries “provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human”, said the assembly.

Hominins refer to the now-extinct species of apes that are believed to be related to modern humans, as well as modern humans themselves. The release said, “Pääbo 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. This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections.”

Also Read: Airtel 5G Speed Test on a Live Network: See Results

What is the relation between evolution and biology?

In its press release, the assembly said Svante Pääbo established an entirely new scientific discipline, called paleogenomics, that focuses on studying the DNA and genetic information of extinct hominins through reconstruction, and “Pääbo’s discoveries have established a unique resource, which is utilized extensively by the scientific community to better understand human evolution and migration…We now understand that archaic gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of present-day humans”.