Research provided evidence that the anatomically modern human, Homo sapiens, first appeared in Africa approximately 300,000 years ago, while our closest known relatives, Neanderthals, developed outside Africa and populated Europe and Western Asia from around 400,000 years until 30,000 years ago, at which point they went extinct. Paleontology and archeology are important for studies of human evolution. The question of our origin and what makes us unique has engaged humanity since ancient times.
By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human. Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline paleogenomics. This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections. Importantly, Pääbo also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova. Through his pioneering research, Svante Pääbo accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. Where do we come from, and how are we related to those who came before us? What makes us, Homo sapiens, different from other hominins? Humanity has always been intrigued by its origins. The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicineįor his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet
0 kommentar(er)
