The Swedish scientist Svante Paabo has won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominis and human evolution.

Through his extraordinary research, Svante Paabo achieved something impossible. He sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct genome of present-day humans. He also discovered a previously unknown hominin Denisova.

• About the Discovery:-

The jury highlighted that Paabo, the director of the Department of Genetics for Evolutionary Anthropology also discovered that gene transfer had occurred from this now extinct hominis to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa some 70,000 years ago.

The transfer of genes has a physiological relevance today. It expresses that people with a strip of Neanderthal DNA are exposed to infections.

• What the Committee Said?

The committee recognizing the efforts of the Swedish scientist said,

'Ever since humanity has been interested in its origin and Svante Praabo is here with his discovery that solves a part of the puzzle. We can now better understand our close relatives' genome sequencing. The prize is surely the most prestigious in the scientific world. The researcher was also incredibly thrilled with the award. Last year, the award went to US pair David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch which have been used to develop treatments for a variety of conditions.

Genome sequencing as performed in the research is a method that is used to understand the entire genetic makeup. Results of this genome sequencing help scientists arrive at better inferences.

Ultimately, the decades-long labor had borne some fantastic fruit. Truly, it has been a victory and a victory of the work of giants.

References:-

• indiatoday.com
• theweatherchannel.com
• theindianexpress.com

.    .    .