The Nobel season has been launched since Monday, October 3. The jury, meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, today awarded the medicine and physiology prize to Svante Pääbo, a 67-year-old Swedish biologist. Founder of paleogeonomics, his work on Neanderthal genome sequencing was rewarded. “By revealing the genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominids, his findings have provided the basis for exploring what makes us humans such unique beings.“, greeted the jury.
“The genetic differences between Homo Sapiens and our now extinct closest relatives were unknown until identified through the work of Pääbo“, added the Nobel committee in its decision. Svante Pääbo discovered in 2009 thata 2% gene transfer had taken place between these now extinct hominins and Homo sapiens.
Physiological impact on our current immune system
This ancient gene flow to modern-day humans has a physiological impact, for example by affecting how our immune system responds to infections. Neanderthals cohabited for a time with modern humans in Europe before disappearing completely around 30,000 years ago.
His father, Sune Bergström, had also received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1982. The prize comes with a reward of 10 million crowns (about 920,000 euros). Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Americans Ardem Patapoutian and David Julius for their discovery of how the nervous system transmits temperature and touch.
The vintage continues in Stockholm on Tuesday with physics, then chemistry on Wednesday, before the highly anticipated literature prize on Thursday and peace on Friday, the only award given in Oslo. The most recent, economy price, closes the vintage next Monday.