The most awaited Nobel season is here. The noble committees will get together in Stockholm and Oslo and announce the prizes in Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Economics.
The announcement series will be initiated with Physiology or Medicine on October 2nd at the Karolinska Institutet in Solna, Sweden.
The Nobel Prize is a prominent worldwide honour given each year in appreciation of exceptional achievements in a variety of subjects. Alfred Nobel, a Swedish engineer, scientist, and philanthropist, left a bequest establishing it. Although Nobel is most known for developing dynamite, he donated the majority of his wealth to start the Nobel Prize after his death in 1896.
Nobel Prize 2022: Physiology or Medicine
The 2022 Physiology or Medicine Nobel Prize was awarded to Svante Pääbo for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
“Humanity has always been intrigued by its origins. Where do we come from, and how are we related to those who came before us? What makes us, Homo sapiens, different from other hominins?
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.
Pääbo’s seminal research gave rise to an entirely new scientific discipline; paleogenomics. By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human.”
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet
Notable Nobel Laureates
1. 1945 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Howard Walter Florey “for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases”
2. 1954 – John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins “for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue”.
3. 1995 – Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric F. Wieschaus “for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development”.
4. 2008 – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus”.
5. 2020 – Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.
Report: Achuth B S
Published: 30 September 2023 | 19:40
Updated:
