About the Lecture

The Neanderthals are the closest extinct relatives of all present-day humans. The Neanderthal genome sequence provides unique insights into modern humans origins.  Pääbo will describe our current understanding of the genetic contributions of Neanderthals to present-day humans and to extinct human groups, for example the Denisovans, a related Asian group. He will also describe preliminary analyses of genomic features that appeared in present-day humans since their divergence from a common ancestor shared with Neanderthals and discuss how they may be functionally analyzed in the future.

About Svante Pääbo

Svante Pääbo is a Swedish biologist and evolutionary anthropologist, best known as one of the founders of paleogenetics. Since developing a method of isolating and sequencing the DNA of long-extinct species, Pääbo and his lab have worked extensively on Neanderthal DNA. In 2010 they succeeded in mapping the Neanderthal genome. Pääbo’s work has demonstrated that Neanderthals interbred with Eurasian humans, resulting in traces of Neanderthal DNA that remain in the genomes of many humans alive today. In summer 2014, Pääbo’s book, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes, was published to great acclaim. Blending scientific findings with personal memoir, Neanderthal Man recounts Pääbo’s three decades of influential research into ancient DNA.

Pääbo has received many honors and awards for his work, including the Gruber Genetics Prize (2013), the Theodor Bücher Medal from the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (2010), and the Kistler Prize (2009). In 2007, Time Magazine named Pääbo one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Pääbo serves as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Uppsala Centre for Comparative Genomics in Sweden, and sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for Cold Spring Harbor Asia in Suzhou, China.

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