The first integration of genetics with archeology
Neanderthal sequencing
7th Nobel Prize Winner
A Swedish medical scientist who revealed the history of human evolution through genetic analysis was selected as the recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ‘era of DNA’ has opened in the world medical science community, with genomes being widely used for virus analysis and vaccine development. It is evaluated that the Nobel Committee reminded the importance of basic and fusion studies by awarding the prize to a scholar who grafted genetics into the history of human evolution.
The Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced on the 3rd that it would award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Svante Pevo (67, photo) of the Max Frank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The Nobel Committee said, “Pevo’s gene sequencing studies have revealed a genetic link between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
Pebo received his Ph.D. from Uppsala University in Sweden in 1986, went to the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and then became a professor at the University of Munich in Germany in 1990. Since his graduate student days, he has published numerous papers in international journals and is considered the founder of archaeological genetics. He is the first scholar to apply next-generation gene sequencing (NGS) to archaeology, which visually checks bones and relics left behind in tombs of ancient people. In Korea, he is well known as the author of < In Search of the Lost Genome >.
If the Human Genome Project completed the genome map of mankind in the 1990s, Pebo’s research completed the history of human genetic evolution. Homo sapiens, a modern human, was first identified in Africa 300,000 years ago. Neanderthals are believed to have inhabited Europe and Western Asia from 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. However, their relationship has not been clearly identified. Pebo analyzed the genes of the ancients and confirmed that Homo sapiens was mixed with Neanderthal blood.
Pevo’s discovery revealed that the genetic sequence of ancient humans also affected modern humans. One of the representative genes is the EPAS1 gene, which is found only in people living in high-altitude areas such as Tibet. It is also known as the ‘high lung capacity gene’. A follow-up study also showed that various chronic disease genes were introduced into Homo sapiens through Neanderthals.
In 2020, Pevo, together with the Karolinska Institute, announced the results of a study linking the Neanderthal gene to COVID-19. According to the analysis result, there is a possibility that the gene region of chromosome 3, one of the genes causing severe disease of Corona 19, was inherited from Neanderthals.
Pevo’s father was Sunne Veristrom, who received the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on prostaglandins, which are physiologically active hormone substances. His father-in-law is the seventh prime minister in history. The prize for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is 10 million kronor (regarding 1.3 billion won).
Reporter Lee Ji-hyun bluesky@hankyung.com
