The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to

SVANTE PÄÄBO

“for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022

"for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution"

Through his pioneering research, Svante Pääbo accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova. Importantly, Pääbo also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago. This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections.

Denisova, Neanderthal and H. sapiens — © The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The 2022 medicine laureate

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Svante Pääbo “for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”.

2022 medicine prize

“There were almost always other types of humans around”

Svante Pääbo was interviewed just after he had heard news of the award of his Nobel Prize. Watch or read the interview.

“This will give huge insights into human physiology”

Watch the announcement of the 2022 medicine prize, and an interview with Professor Nils-Göran Larsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee, about the prize.

Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly.

Did you know?

Quick facts

Did you know?

113 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded between 1901 and 2022.

12 women have been awarded the medicine prize so far.

32 years was the age of the youngest medicine laureate ever, Frederick G. Banting, who was awarded the 1923 medicine prize for the discovery of insulin.

87 years was the age of the oldest medicine laureate ever, Peyton Rous, when he was awarded the medicine prize in 1966 for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses.

1 father and son duo Sune Bergström and Svante Pääbo have each been awarded a medicine prize. Svante Pääbo was awarded 40 years after his father.

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