The 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine was announced today, awarded to Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo. He is a Swedish national, born on April 20, 1955, 67 years old, and an authority on evolutionary genetics. The reason for the award is for his discoveries and contributions to the genome of extinct species and to human evolution.
Pabo was honored for his discoveries on the genome of extinct hominid and human evolution. Through his groundbreaking research, Pabo accomplished the seemingly impossible task of sequencing the genome of the extinct modern human cousin, the Neanderthal.
He also made a splash with the discovery of the hominid Denisova hominins
Most importantly, Pabo also found that gene transfer between the extinct hominid and Homo sapiens occurred after the first group of humans moved out of Africa about 700,000 years ago.
The transfer of these ancient genes to modern humans is related to human physiology over time, such as affecting the human immune system’s response to infection.
This ancient gene flow to modern humans is physiologically relevant today, for example affecting our immune system’s response to infection. . His father was also the winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
After the Nobel Prize winners for medicine were first announced today, the winners of the Physics Prize and Chemistry Prize will be announced on the 4th and 5th respectively, and the winner of the Literature Prize will be announced on the 6th.
The much-anticipated Peace Prize will be announced on the 7th. It is the only Nobel Prize awarded in Oslo, Norway. The Economics Prize will be announced on the 10th, marking the end of the 2022 Nobel Prize season.
Each Nobel Prize will give the winner 10 million Swedish kronor (approximately NT$28.7 million) in cash, and the payments will be released on December 10.
The prize money comes from the legacy of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor and founder of the Nobel Prize. Before his death in 1895, he made a will, using the estate to create the Nobel Prize.