In 1990, someone assigned a doctoral student an impossible task. This guy just won a Nobel Prize

Being the son of a Nobel laureate is poisoned candy. Above all, if you want to devote yourself to the same thing as him. Because yes, this relationship opens doors for you, gives you an unbeatable perspective on high-level research and provides you with social capital away from the rest of humanity. However, it generates many doubts.

Svante Papu knew this all too well when he left his native Sweden for California in the late 1980s. Babu’s father (Son Bergstrom) won the city’s Nobel Prize in 1982 and was such a burden on young Svante that he actually started using his mother’s surname. But in the end, everything is known. And maybe that’s why, when he got to Alan Wilson’s lab, they put a cap on him. Something that seemed impossible.

History is dump

At least, that’s the impression you make once we get out of the books: We’re talking about a huge, messy, crazy, pointless dump. This was certainly the first great lesson Svante learned when trying to study Neanderthal DNA. Then learn more things: most importantly, DNA is chemically modified and broken down into short pieces. Thousands of years later, only traces of DNA remain, and what remains is heavily contaminated with DNA from modern bacteria and humans.

Back then in the late ’80s, devoting yourself to that was dedicating yourself to something that everyone thought was simply impossible. A way to entertain a son To get to the cutting edge evolutionary biology lab, the lab that would have found original evethe African woman from whom all the mitochondrial DNA in the world today is derived.

The problem was that Svante was passionate about the subject. In 1990, Babu Appointed by the University of Munich He decided to continue his work on ancient DNA. Using what he had learned in Wilson’s lab, he set out to work analyzing Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA. The logic was lonely: it is true that the sequences of this genome are small and partial, but they are repeated thousands of times. This means that there were more chances of success.

30 year journey

To everyone’s surprise, it was a success. Babu I managed to sequence A region of mitochondrial DNA 40,000 year old bone. For the first time, we have access to a series of extinct relatives, and in this way, we confirm that they are genetically different creatures from both modern humans and chimpanzees. This is where the good begins.

Thanks to the support of the Max Planck Institute In Leipzig, Pääbo has improved techniques for isolating and analyzing DNA from ancient skeletal remains. They collected all the remains they could and combined them with experts in population genetics and advanced sequencing analysis. Thus, 30 years later, in 2010, Pääbo managed to publish the first sequence of the Neanderthal genome.

Two years earlier, in 2008, Paääbo’s team began analyzing a 40,000-year-old finger bone found in Denisovan, a cave in southern Siberia. The bone contained DNA so well preserved that it opened the door to a completely different story: the story Humanity not only consisted of Neanderthals and Cro-MagnonsUnlike that A huge group of human species that have disappeared today.

Is this worthy of a Nobel?

Nobody doubts Babu’s achievement: He alone was able to create a completely new scientific systemAncient genomics. But what is the real significance of this to people’s lives? truly He deserves the Nobel Prize in Medicine? This is the most wonderful thing.

Because thanks to Svante Pääbo’s discoveries, we now know that the genetic sequence of our extinct relatives influences the physiology of modern humans. for example EPAS1 gene transcript which confer the advantage of staying at high altitude and are common among Tibetans today: come from Denisovans; But there are many cases that have a fundamental impact on our day.

In the end, Babu’s work shows us that there is no better way to understand our present, physiology, and way of getting sick than by analyzing what makes us human and what is hidden in the memory of the planet. Luckily, We’ve learned to undo it, and that’s going to change everything.

picture | Nobel Foundation