Thread by @newscientist

The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Svante Pääbo for his study into human evolution using ancient DNA newscientist.com/article/234060…

Svante Pääbo is a pioneer in paleogenetics, and has previously revealed early humans interbred with Neanderthals and discovered a whole new type of hominin from its DNA alone

Back in 2011, @alisonge interviewed Pääbo for @newscientist

newscientist.com/article/mg2112…

Svante Pääbo and his team identified this previously unknown type of hominin, called the Denisovans, from DNA in a pinkie bone found in a cave in Siberia

newscientist.com/article/mg2222…

In 1990, Pääbo – who founded the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany – pioneered methods to sequence ancient DNA by attempting to sequence that of Neanderthal mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of cells

DNA degrades and can become contaminated, meaning that sequencing ancient DNA was thought to be impossible
newscientist.com/definition/dna/

“Humanity has always been intrigued by its origins,” said Anna Wedell, chair of the @NobelPrize committee

“Where do we come from? And how are we related to those who came before us? What makes us different from hominids that went extinct?”

“Pääbo finally achieved the [what was thought to be] impossible sequencing and assembly of the Neanderthal genome… and discovered a completely new hominin entirely [the Denisovans] by analysing and comparing genome sequences,” said Anna Wedell
newscientist.com/definition/den…

Referring to the moment Pääbo was told about his #NobelPrize achievement, @perlmannlab, secretary of the Nobel assembly, said: “He was speechless, very happy.”