Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to scientist who sequenced Neanderthal genome

Svante Paabo’s work with Neanderthal DNA explores what makes modern humans unique

The Nobel Prize in Medicine is awarded this year to the Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo, as announced a few minutes ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The Swedish scientist was awarded “for his discoveries about the genome of extinct hominins and human evolution”.

The prize, considered one of the most prestigious in the scientific world, is awarded by the Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and is accompanied by 10 million Swedish kroner.