STOCKHOLM/LONDON: Svante Paabo, a geneticist from Sweden, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for his work in advancing our knowledge of how contemporary humans sprang from extinct relatives at the beginning of human history.
When Paabo discovered that COVID-19 infected people who contain a gene mutation inherited from Neanderthals are more likely to experience severe illness than those who do not, his research had practical ramifications during the COVID-19 epidemic.
For his “discoveries relating the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution,” Paabo, director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, was awarded the Nobel prize, according to the Award committee.
At a news conference at the Max Planck Institute, Paabo said, “The thing that fascinates me is that you now have the ability to go back in time and actually study genetic background and genetic changes across time.”
If you like, you can begin tracking evolution in real time.The 67-year-old Paabo claimed he assumed the contact from Sweden was a joke or had anything to do with his vacation home there.”So I was just swallowing down the last cup of tea to go and collect up my kid at her babysitter where she has had an overnight,” Paabo was heard saying in a recording that was posted on the Nobel website.
He said, “No, I have received a few awards previously, but I didn’t imagine that this would genuinely qualify for a Nobel Prize,” in response to the question of whether he thought he would win.
