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RCMG Experts Commented on the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine

The Caroline Institute in Stockholm named the winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. He became Svante Paabo, a 67-year-old Swedish biologist and evolutionary geneticist. His achievements include sequencing the genome of Neanderthal. The Swedish scientist is famous for deciphering the DNA of a Neanderthal for the first time in history. Thanks to his scientific research, a new discipline was created: paleo-genomics. The Nobel Committee notes that the works of Svante Paabo are «widely used by the scientific community for the better understanding of human evolution and migration».

Experts of RCMG commented on the Nobel Prize presentation to the Swedish scientist Svante Paabo.

Mikhail Skoblov, the Head of the functional genomics laboratory of RCMG, said:  After sequencing the human genome, many interesting scientific projects have emerged. Some were aimed at sequencing different animal species to understand their genetic diversity and to identify what we all have in common. Other projects include sequencing a large number of different people to understand how individual genomes work, and also to investigate the causes of hereditary diseases that concern everyone. But the amazing thing was the possibility of sequencing the DNA of long-dead people, and not just people. Swante Paabo is a pioneer in this field. It was his team that first cut the genome of Neanderthal, and then the genome of Denisovan, whose remains were found in a cave in the Altai Mountains. Since then, technologies for sequencing and analysis of ancient DNA have become widely available and used, including in Russia. In total, tens of thousands of samples of ancient people were sequenced. Their remains were found at different times, mainly on the territory of Europe. Svante Paabo’s works are very well known in the scientific world, and they are attracted by their simple questions: everyone is interested in who lived before us, what they were, why they died out. And some questions are answered».

Svante Paabo is one of the founders of paleo-genetics, a discipline that explores the evolution of hominids (primates) using molecular genetic methods. Such research is essential for obtaining new knowledge about the oldest populations, their interaction with each other. Neanderthal genes are the most important marker of a modern human settling across continents and the formation of human races. On the other hand, and in the field of modern human genetics, including medical genetics, information on the similarity and difference between the genomes of modern humans and hominids is very important for identifying genetic loci associated with phenotype. It is also possible to study the genes responsible for different abilities acquired by Homo Sapiens during the evolution. One of the most striking examples is that a person acquires the ability to assimilate milk sugar - lactose associated with the appearance of a lactase enzyme whose LCT gene is absent from the genome of Neanderthals»,- says the leading researcher of the DNA diagnostics laboratory of RCMG, Ph.D. Olga Shchagina.

The information portal «Izvestia» has prepared a large material with comments by leading experts of RCMG.

Follow the link for more information: https://iz.ru/1404785/mariia-nediuk-olga-kolentcova/gen-i-interesen-pochemu-za-rasshifrovku-dnk-drevnikh-liudei-dali-nobelevku

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2022/press-release/