The President of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Gerald Haug, congratulates Svante Pääbo on this prestigious award: “We are particularly pleased that a member of the Leopoldina has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year for his pioneering research. This honour recognizes groundbreaking findings in the field of paleogenetics that have contributed to a novel understanding of early humans.”
Pääbo was the first to identify DNA in Egyptian mummies. He then developed completely new methods for determining genetic sequences from historical remains (“ancient DNA”). Using these techniques, he was able to extract mitochondrial DNA sequences from the bone of a Neanderthal and sequence more than three billion base pairs of the cell nucleus genome of this extinct prehistoric human. Thus, the scientists was able to compare the genome of modern humans with that of Neanderthals for the first time.
Pääbo developed his research methods further and finally decoded the entire Neanderthal genome. Together with his team, he proved that Neanderthals passed their genes on to all modern humans living outside of Africa. Roughly one to four per cent of today's human genetic material stems from Neanderthals. The scientists thus provided evidence that early Europeans interbred with Neanderthals. In the course of this work, they also discovered a new, already extinct group of humans, the Denisova humans, who were related to Neanderthals. Some of the genes passed on from Neanderthals are beneficial to humans living today. However, many contribute to increased susceptibility to disease. Svante Pääbo is also investigating the role of these genes in the emergence of diseases.
Svante Pääbo's research opened up a new perspective on evolutionary processes and thus provides detailed insights into the relationships between already extinct human groups. He investigated the forces directly influencing the genome, such as mutation, recombination and genetic drift, as well as the effects of selection and population history.
Svante Pääbo was born in Stockholm in 1955. Since 1997, Pääbo has lived in Leipzig and is director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI EVA). Svante Pääbo has worked as an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig in the Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology since 1999. He has been a member of the Leopoldina in the Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine Section since 2001. Pääbo has received numerous awards for his research. Among others, he received the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and the Dan Davids Prize in 2017. In 2018, Pääbo was awarded the Körber European Science Prize. The Karolinska Institute (Stockholm/Sweden) bestowed an honorary doctorate on him in 2012. In 2009, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina awarded Pääbo the Darwin Badge of the Leopoldina for his work in the field of evolutionary research and genetics.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is currently endowed with a total of ten million Swedish kronor (equivalent to around 920,000 euros). All Nobel Prizes are traditionally bestowed on the laureates on 10 December, the anniversary of founder Alfred Nobel’s death.
The Leopoldina has more than 1,600 members, with a current 35 Nobel laureates among them.