Nobel prize in medicine awarded to geneticist who sequenced Neanderthal genome

The geneticist from Sweden who traced the evolution of modern day humans from their close extinct relatives won the prize.

The 10 million Swedish krona ($900,500) prize will be given to Svante Pbo for his work on the evolution of hominins.

With the help of Pbo, we were able to sequence the genome of one of our closest extinct relatives, the Neanderthals. After modern humans migrated out of Africa roughly 70,000 years ago, Pbo discovered that both of these species had co-existed with us.

One of the Neanderthal hideouts is a secret cave chamber.

Humanity has always been curious about its beginnings. What are we from? How are we related to people who preceded us? What distinguishes us from hominids that died? The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences member said during the announcement that she was a member of the committee. Neanderthals had large brains. They lived in groups and used tools, but they didn't change much until they vanished.

Neanderthal bones were first discovered in a German quarry in 1856, but before the invention of genetic analysis the scientists who studied them were limited to comparing their appearance with human bones The challenge of obtaining ancient genetic material for study remained immense due to the degradation of the material over time and the presence ofbacteria

In order to sidestep these problems, Pbo developed a sophisticated toolkit of new techniques, which included removing the mitochondrial DNA from bones and applying statistical techniques to weed out remaining genetic contaminants. Pbo was able to sequence the entire Neanderthal genome after applying these methods.

He discovered that humans and Neanderthals were both descended from a single common Ancestor who lived around 800,000 years ago, and that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had children together. Up to 2% of the human's genetic material comes from Neanderthals.

The Denisovans were discovered after Pbo and his colleagues looked into the genomes of a 40,000-year-old bone fragment. The offspring of our ancient ancestors was found to have had sex with humans in eastern Eurasia, meaning that populations in Melanesia and parts of Southeast Asia can carry up to six percent Denisova genes. The genes from Denisovans help modern-day Tibetans survive in high altitudes.

Pbo's discoveries help to reveal where humans came from and how they became successful. Neanderthals had big brains, were highly social and used complex tools, but their cultural patterns did not change much over hundreds of thousands of years. There is some evidence that Neanderthals created art.

The other side of the coin was the rapid development of complex cultures and art. They spread to all parts of the planet. After we separated from Neanderthals and Denisovans, genetic changes took place.

Thanks to Pbo's discoveries, these key genetic differences and their implications for how Homo sapiens came to dominate the planet, await further discovery.