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The Swedish researcher is known for having developed a new discipline: paleogenetics, which consists of investigating human evolution through the study of the DNA of the hominids that preceded us. Pääbo managed to sequence for the first time the genetic information of Neanderthals and Denisovans, both species extinct tens of thousands of years ago.
For years, everything we knew about our ancestors was collected from the study of bones, teeth and archaeological remains. And, although we learned a lot in this way, it also required extensive exercise in the art of deduction. Svante Pääbo, a scientist born in Stockholm in 1955, did not want to resign himself and embarked on the adventure of understanding the genetics of our evolutionary ancestors; an adventure that has now earned him the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
After more than a decade of work, Pääbo and his team succeeded in sequencing the DNA of the Neanderthals in 2010. It was as if the entire archeology and paleontology had been looking through dirty glasses for years, and suddenly their vision had become clearer. . Thanks to the incredible discovery of the Swedish scientist, a piece of bone now became a genetic map full of information.
As a result of the development of new techniques to find the DNA of these extinct hominids, Pääbo was able to demonstrate that today’s humans share between 1 and 2% of neanderthal DNA, that is to say that homo sapiens, from our evolutionary line, arrived to mix and reproduce with our closest ancestors before they became extinct.
Pääbo and his team were also able to hang themselves a very special medal: the discovery of a new extinct species of hominids, the Denisovans, thanks to the genomic sequencing of a single finger found in a Siberian cave.
“By revealing the genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, their discoveries lay the groundwork for exploring what makes us uniquely human,” the Karolinska Institute committee explained in announcing the award for Pääbo.
