Svante Paabo, the scientist who discovered the genome of primitive humans, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine

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Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on 3 October 2022 for discoveries that help in our understanding of how modern day humans evolved from extinct ancestors.

 According to the Nobel Committee, Svante Paabo won the prize for "discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.” 

Svante Paabo is currently the director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. 

Svante Paabo is the son of the Swedish biochemist Karl Sune Detlof Bergström who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982. 

His pioneering work  

He discovered a new human species called the Denisovans, from a 40,000-year-old fragment of a finger bone discovered in Siberia. 

During the discovery of the genome of an extinct species of human named Neanderthal, he developed a technique by which the genome of any fossil could be accessed. 

Dr. Pebo's more than 40 years of hard work discovered such a technique, which can be used to analyse the genome of millions of years old. Through this technique, factors such as bacteria, fungus, dust, seasonal changes and external chemical changes are cleaned from DNA. In the last 20 years, this technology has gone so far that now millions of DNA can be analysed simultaneously.

What is Genome 

Genome is the set of information about genes within a cell. Within the genome, the complete information of that organism is kept in the form of DNA. This information, called the genome, is made up of DNA molecules. Whenever a cell divides or copies, this information is also copied together.

Nobel Prize 

The Nobel Prize, which is considered to be the most prestigious prize in the world, was created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel. The prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace have been awarded since 1901 and the economics prize was first given in 1969. 

The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on 10 December 2022. 10 December is the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel.