{"id":4921,"date":"2022-10-20T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4921"},"modified":"2022-10-05T10:13:39","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T10:13:39","slug":"whats-next-for-ancient-dna-studies-after-nobel-prize-honors-groundbreaking-field-of-paleogenomics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/whats-next-for-ancient-dna-studies-after-nobel-prize-honors-groundbreaking-field-of-paleogenomics\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s next for ancient DNA studies after Nobel Prize honors groundbreaking field of\u00a0paleogenomics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Researchers need to be careful not to contaminate ancient samples with their own DNA.\n Caia Image via Getty Images<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nMary Prendergast<\/a>, Rice University<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

For the first time, a Nobel Prize recognized the field of anthropology, the study of humanity. Svante P\u00e4\u00e4bo, a pioneer in the study of ancient DNA, or aDNA, was awarded the 2022 prize in physiology or medicine<\/a> for his breathtaking achievements sequencing DNA extracted from ancient skeletal remains and reconstructing early humans\u2019 genomes \u2013 that is, all the genetic information contained in one organism.<\/p>\n\n

His accomplishment was once only the stuff of Jurassic Park-style science fiction. But P\u00e4\u00e4bo and many colleagues, working in large multidisciplinary teams, pieced together the genomes<\/a> of our distant cousins, the famous Neanderthals and the more elusive Denisovans, whose existence was not even known until their DNA was sequenced<\/a> from a tiny pinky bone of a child buried in a cave in Siberia<\/a>. Thanks to interbreeding with and among<\/a> these early humans, their genetic traces live on in many of us today<\/a>, shaping our bodies and our disease vulnerabilities \u2013 for example, to COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n