Meet Swedish scientist Svante Paabo, winner of Nobel Prize in Medicine

Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discoveries in human evolution that unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA and helped us understand what makes humans unique and provided key insights into our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe Covid-19. (AP Photo)

Techniques that Paabo spearheaded allowed researchers to compare the genome of modern humans and that of other hominins — the Denisovans as well as Neanderthals. (AP Photo)

“Just as you do an archeological excavation to find out about the past, we sort of make excavations in the human genome,” he said at a news conference held by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. (Reuters)

While Neanderthal bones were first discovered in the mid-19th century, only by understanding their DNA — often referred to as the code of life — have scientists been able to fully understand the links between species. (Reuters)

Paabo and his team managed to extract DNA from a tiny finger bone found in a cave in Siberia, leading to the recognition of a new species of ancient humans they called Denisovans. Neanderthals and Denisovans were sister groups that split from each other around 600,000 years ago. Denisovan genes have been found in up to 6% of modern humans in Asia and Southeast Asia, indicating interbreeding occurred there too. (AP Photo)

Paabo said he was surprised to learn of his win, and at first thought it was an elaborate prank by colleagues or a call about his summer home in Sweden. (Reuters)

Paabo, 67, performed his prizewinning studies at the University of Munich and at the Max Planck Institute. During the celebrations after the news conference in Leipzig, colleagues threw him into a pool of water. Paabo took it with humor, splashing his feet and laughing. (AP Photo)

Paabo swims in a pool after his colleagues threw him in at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. (AP Photo)

Paabo’s father, Sune Bergstrom, won the Nobel prize in medicine in 1982. This is the eighth time the son or daughter of a laureate also won a Nobel Prize. (AP Photo)

Nobel Prize announcements continue Tuesday with the physics prize, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on October 10. (Reuters)