Who the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine?

The father of paleogenomics, Svante Pääbo (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany), received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his pioneering paintings in sequencing and analyzing the DNA of extinct hominids and their contributions to our understanding of human evolution [1].

The question of what makes humans unique and why we survive and thrive while other hominins faded in prehistory has fascinated scientists and the general public since evidence of our Neanderthal ancestors was first discovered in 1856. Early archaeological evidence revealed that Homo sapiens first evolved in Africa 300,000 years before populating the Middle East and the rest of the world. During this expansion, Homo sapiens encountered Neanderthals in Europe and western Asia who had left their impression on those regions 400,000 years ago. Approximately 40,000 years after the expansion of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals became extinct.

Many first took this as evidence of a Hobbesian view of humanity: Homo sapiens, more self-interested, calculating and violent, gradually destroyed, surpassed and repositioned populations in the position of our ancestral relatives. But testing this theory and identifying exactly what differed between us and Neanderthals were left with the purely archaeological and paleontological investigations of the bones and colonies left by either species.

However, over more than two decades, the paleogenomics box has provided new data that, combined with archaeological evidence, paints another story. For those discoveries to come to fruition, the box requires impressive and immediate evolution.

Pääbo’s involvement in this box began early in his career working in Allan Willson’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley (CA, USA). In the U. S. ), undeterred through the significantly demanding situations of ancient DNA sequencing. Degradation and contamination through human and microbial DNA are not unusual. in those samples, which are small. So, to deal first of all with those demanding situations, he focused on mitochondrial DNA, which is much more abundant.

After moving to the University of Munich (Gerguyy), this technique, despite everything, allowed Pääbo to serialize a region of mitochondrial DNA from a 40,000-year-old Neanderthal bone in 1997. Subsequent research of this series through his laboratory obviously marked those hominids as genetically distinct from the fashionable man [2]. However, the amount of data that can be extracted from mitochondrial DNA is limited in scope due to its short duration and small number of genes; To figure out what made the enormity successful, researchers needed to look at the entire Neanderthal genome.

It was not until 2010, after the creation of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology by Pääbo, that the breakthrough occurred. Experts from around the world, Pääbo and his team effectively sequenced the first complete Neanderthal genome.

Ancient DNA extracted from microscopic particles of fossil-like bones

The researchers developed a polyester resin strategy to extract ancient DNA from archaeological sediments and found concentrated amounts of DNA in microscopic remains of bones or feces.

Between those two discoveries, an unforeseen outcome from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology shocked the world. A 40,000-year-old finger bone fragment from a cave in Siberia, containing strangely preserved DNA, is found on array at the institute and research in the series revealed that it is unique to human and Neanderthal DNA. In 2008, 152 years after the discovery of Neanderthals, a new species of hominids coexisting with humans was discovered. Named Denisovans, after the Denisova cave from which the bone was extracted, those hominins are now believed to have lived in eastern Eurasia until about 20,000 years ago, with the oldest known bone pattern dating back 200,000 years [5].

Now the history of the expansion of Homo sapiens can be traced, not only through hard-ground evidence, but also through our existing DNA. Using those gene sequences, the researchers were also able to determine that Homo sapiens split from Neanderthals 800,000 years ago. They have also been used to identify that modern humans of European and Asian descent have between 1 and 4% Neanderthal DNA, more than those of African descent. Meanwhile, many descendants of Southeast Asia have up to 6% Denisovan DNA.

These collections of extinct hominin genes found in modern humans constitute the gene from Denisovans and Neanderthals to Homo sapiens as our species expands around the world, interacting and interbreeding with those cultures. In addition, upcoming archaeological studies revealed the exchange of human and Neanderthal settlements. on the same site for many years, suggesting that the decline of the latter took place over a much longer time era, with the two species living side by side in the same regions.

Subsequent examinations of genes that were passed down from our extinct hominid relatives revealed several physiological impacts. These come with the Denisovan edition of EAPS1, which awards merit for high-altitude survival, while a number of Neanderthal variants on chromosome 3 are linked to an increased threat of hospitalization due to COVID-19 [6].

Evolutionary modeling with “Neanderthalized” brain organoids

New organoid strategies along with genomic studies have allowed the creation of Neanderthal brain organoids for the study of evolutionary history.

Speaking at the award announcement about what made humans perform better, Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam (Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden) put forward the theory that “humans have developed giant population sizes into which Neanderthals have necessarily been assimilated. “Being able to analyze the genes of humans and Neanderthals to identify adjustments that allowed humans to be more social and identify giant, more collaborative teams is one of the key programs of those hominin genomes.

Pääbo’s study organization continues to produce new strategies that the extraction and sequencing of ancient DNA [7] and the programs of those sequences are increasingly elaborate and creative, with a recent study effort that culminated in the creation of a “Neanderthalized” brain organoid to better perceive the differences between our species. The effects of their paintings will be far-reaching and on medicine and health, but they can also help provide a more positive view of what made humans exclusive and more successful than our extinct cousins. Perhaps cooperation, not calculation, is attributed to the survival of humanity.

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