Discovering the Future of Medicine: Your Complete Guide to the Nobel Prize in Medicine
By Anurag Kataria
Svante Pääbo, a Swedish geneticist, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on human evolution and extinct hominins. His sequencing work led to the discovery of the Neanderthal genome in 2010.
An entire organism's or cell type's genetic makeup can be determined using a laboratory method. Genomic sequencing's findings can be utilized for disease treatment and diagnosis.
Genome Sequencing
Due to the fact that DNA is susceptible to contamination from microbes, the process of amplifying and sequencing ancient DNA is an enormous undertaking. The meticulously designed rooms at Svante shielded fossil samples from human genetic material.
A Challenging Feat
The research conducted by Dr. Svante sheds light on our immune system. It looks at how modern humans differ genetically from Neanderthals and Denisovans. His work helps us comprehend how genetics influence diseases like COVID-19.
Outstanding Outcomes
In 2020, Dr. Pääbo and a colleague discovered that when infected with the coronavirus, individuals who inherited a common stretch of Neanderthal DNA were more likely to experience severe symptoms.
Vulnerable Inheritance
Pääbo discovered the Denisovans, an extinct hominid, during his research. After sequencing mitochondrial DNA from a 40,000-year-old bone, he also dated the Neanderthals' extinction to 30,000 years ago.
Tracing Ancestral Footsteps
The work of Pääbo sheds light on the extinct human species. It also keeps track of how genes moved through human evolution to make up the DNA that makes up the modern human.
A Milestone In Microbiology
The study and analysis of genes from ancient or extinct organisms is known as paleogenomics. The research and recognition of Svante Pääbo have sparked a lot of interest in this new field of science.