(Stockholm) The Nobel Prize for Medicine crowned the pioneer of paleogenomics, the Swede Svante Pääbo, on Monday for the complete sequencing of the genome of Neanderthal man and the foundation of this discipline which goes back to the DNA of the bottom of the ages to shed light on our genes today.
Posted at 12:47 a.m.
Updated at 8:35 a.m.
“By revealing the genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries have provided the basis for exploring what makes us humans such unique beings,” praised the Nobel jury.
Thanks to the sequencing of a bone found in Siberia in 2008, it also revealed the existence of another distinct and previously unknown hominin, Denisova’s man, who lived in present-day Russia and Asia. .
Aged 67 and living in Germany for decades – he works at the prestigious Max-Planck Institute – Svante Pääbo discovered in 2009 that a gene transfer of around 2% had taken place between these extinct hominins, such as Neanderthals , and Homo sapiens.
This ancient gene flow to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example in affecting how our immune system responds to infections.
His work had thus recently shown that COVID-19 patients carrying a segment of Neanderthal DNA – particularly in Europe, and more notably in South Asia – inherited a cross with the human genome some 60,000 years ago. years, are more at risk of severe complications of the disease.
“Genetic differences between Homo Sapiens and our now extinct closest relatives were unknown until identified through the work of Pääbo,” the Nobel committee welcomed in its decision.
The Swedish researcher has been able to overcome the difficulties posed by the degradation of DNA over time: after thousands of years, only traces remain, moreover largely contaminated by bacteria or modern human traces.
Neanderthal man cohabited for a time with modern man in Europe before disappearing completely around 30,000 years ago, supplanted by Sapiens, with African roots.
Pääbo, a native of Stockholm, had been considered a Nobel candidate for a long time. But he had disappeared from the list of favorites in recent years.
“He lives in Leipzig, so it was easy to reach him, he wasn’t sleeping,” said Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel committee responsible for awarding the prize.
“He was speechless, very happy, he asked me if he could tell his wife, I said okay. He was incredibly happy.”
Nobel and son of Nobel
His prize opens a dynasty: his father, Sune Bergström (1916-2004), had also received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1982 for research related to hormones.
This is the natural father of Svante, who publicly explained in 2014 to be the result of an extramarital affair, hence their different names.
The reward is endowed with 10 million crowns (about 920,000 euros). Winning a scientific Nobel alone is an increasingly rare feat – the last time for medicine was in 2016.
The Nobel vintage continues in Stockholm on Tuesday with physics and Wednesday with chemistry, before the highly anticipated literature prizes on Thursday and peace prizes on Friday, the only award given in Oslo. The most recent economy price closes the vintage next Monday.
With this 113e Nobel in medicine or physiology, they are now 226 to have been awarded the prize since its creation, including 12 women.
No organization has ever been awarded, which is prohibited by the rules of the Karolinska Institute which awards the prize.
Last year, the prize went to two Americans, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, for their discoveries on how touch works.
Male American or US-based researchers have still largely dominated Nobel science prize winners in recent decades, despite juries’ efforts to crown more women.
The 2021 Nobel season was no exception to the rule, with 12 winners and only one winner. All the scientific prizes had gone to men.