Swedish geneticist wins Nobel medicine prize for decoding ancient DNA

FILE PHOTO: Japan Prize 2020 laureate Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo poses with his trophy during the Japan Prize presentation ceremony in Tokyo, Japan April 13, 2022. Japan Prize this year awarded the winners including the years of 2020 and 2021. Eugene Hoshiko/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) -Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for discoveries that underpin our understanding of how modern day people evolved from extinct ancestors at the dawn of human history.

Paabo's work demonstrated practical implications during the COVID-19 pandemic when he found that people infected with the virus who carry a gene variant inherited from Neanderthals are more at risk of severe illness than whose who do not.