One of the founders of paleogenetics, Svante Pääbo investigates what sets humans apart from other organisms. He sequenced the Neandertal genome, identifying genetic changes in the human genome that differentiate humans from Neandertals, chimpanzees and other apes. These differences constitute a “genetic recipe” for modern humans. Pääbo is exploring the functional consequences of these changes, especially in cognitive and social abilities that enable technology, societies, art, and language. He discovered a previously unknown hominin, Denisova, and later that interbreeding occurred between Neandertals and Denisovans, which has implications for understanding the human brain and health.
Born in Sweden, Pääbo earned his PhD from Uppsala University in 1986 and did postdoctoral research at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley (US). He is the director of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and adjunct professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 | 16:30 | Kunsthaus Zurich, Chipperfield Building
