Explorer of ancient DNA awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine

Swedish geneticist and team presented first sequencing of entire Neanderthal genome

STOCKHOLM - The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Dr Svante Paabo, a Swedish geneticist, on Monday for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.

It was the first of several prizes to be given over the next week.

The Nobel Prizes, among the highest honours in science, recognise groundbreaking contributions in a variety of fields.

"Through his pioneering research, Svante Paabo - this year's Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine - accomplished something seemingly impossible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans," the Nobel committee said in a statement.