Contents
Svante Pääbo
Recovering ancient human DNA and revealing our genetic connections with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Neanderthal genome · Denisovans
- Born
- 20 April 1955
- Birthplace
- Stockholm, Sweden
More people
Svante Pääbo
Svante Pääbo is a Swedish geneticist who helped establish the study of ancient genomes. He received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Early life
Stockholm family
Grew up with his mother, chemist Karin Pääbo; his father was biochemist Sune Bergström.
Ancient history to genetics
Studied at Uppsala University, moving from interests in Egyptology and medicine into molecular research.
Career
- 1980s
Ancient DNA
Investigated whether genetic material could be recovered from ancient remains.
- 1990s
Research leadership
Worked in Munich and became a founding director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- 2010
Archaic genomes
His teams reported a draft Neanderthal genome and identified Denisovans through DNA.
- 2022
Medicine Nobel
Received recognition for discoveries about extinct hominins and human evolution.
Contributions
Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA
Helped recover and analyse genetic material from a Neanderthal specimen.
Neanderthal genome
Provided evidence of interbreeding with ancestors of living humans.
Neanderthal Man
Recounted the effort to reconstruct an ancient genome.
Beyond the lab
A scientific family
Both he and his father became Nobel laureates in medicine, for different areas of research.
Public storytelling
His book describes contamination, failed experiments and collaboration behind ancient-DNA discoveries.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel Prize biography and award ↗Photo: Duncan.Hull. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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