Nobel Prize 2022 for Medicine: Svante Paabo wins for work on genomes of extinct hominins

The Nobel Prize 2022 for Medicine or Physiology has been awarded to Sweden's Svante Paabo "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution". 

A researcher at the Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Pääbo has discovered that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens. Hominin is the term that encompasses all our ancestors from Homo erectus to the Homo neandertalensis, also called Neanderthals. “This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections”, The Nobel Committee said in a statement.  

According to the Committee, Pääbo has established an entirely new scientific discipline named paleogenomics by revealing genetic differences distinguishing us humans from extinct hominins. His discovery is being considered a stepping stone toward determining what makes us humans unique. 

Through his research, Pääbo sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal, the closest relative of present-day humans and also discovered an extinct hominin, the Denisova, entirely from genome data retrieved from a small finger bone specimen.

Last year, scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian jointly won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

Starting October 3, the awards in physics, chemistry, literature and peace will be awarded in the next few days. There is no revelation on the name of the nominees as the Nobel Committee makes the names public 50 years after the nominations. 

About the Nobel Prize

The idea of the Nobel Prize stemmed from businessman and chemist Alfred Nobel died in 1896 and left his fortune for the establishment of prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. While the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway’s Oslo, all other awards are given by Swedish Institutions; it is still unclear why Alfred Nobel chose Norway for the Peace Prize distribution. 

As for the Prize money, it comes from the interest earned on Alfred Nobel’s fortune which he wanted to be converted into a fund and invested in “safe securities.” The Nobel Prizes are being awarded every year since 1901 except for the years during World War I (1914-1918) and II (1939-1945).