STOCKHOLM, October 3. /TASS/. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Swedish biologist Svante Paabo, the Nobel Prize Committee of Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute announced on Monday.
The scientist was awarded the prize "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution," according to the committee’s decision.
Through his research, the scientist accomplished what the scientific community considered impossible - he sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal. "He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova," the committee noted.
The Swedish biologist also discovered that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following their migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago. In modern humans, these genes define how their immune system reacts to infections. Paabo’s research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline, paleogenomics.
"Paabo’s discoveries have established a unique resource, which is utilized extensively by the scientific community to better understand human evolution and migration," experts explained, noting that "thanks to Svante Paabo’s discoveries, we now understand that archaic gene sequences from our extinct relatives influence the physiology of present-day humans. One such example is the Denisovan version of the gene EPAS1, which confers an advantage for survival at high altitude and is common among present-day Tibetans. Other examples are Neanderthal genes that affect our immune response to different types of infections".