Academy Building
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Traces of Ancient Genes in Modern Life
The Neanderthals are alive - in us! Evolutionary geneticist and Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo led the team that successfully sequenced the Neanderthal genome and this breakthrough revealed modern humans still carry DNA from Neanderthals. The team also discovered a previously unknown extinct Asian hominin group related to Neandertals, which they named “Denisovans”. They found that about 2.0% of the genomes of people living outside Africa come from Neandertals while about 5.0% of the genomes of people living in Oceania come from Denisovans. In this J.C. Kapteyn Lecture, Pääbo explains that these genetic contributions have numerous physiological and medical consequences today, for example in growth patterns and sensitivity to pain.
Svante Pääbo is director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and one of the founders of the field of paleogenetics. During his doctoral studies, he first demonstrated that DNA could be recovered from ancient Egyptian mummies. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022 was awarded to Pääbo "for his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution". During his doctoral studies, he first demonstrated that DNA could be recovered from ancient Egyptian mummies. Through research combining genetics, evolutionary biology, and paleontology, Pääbo has profoundly advanced our understanding of human origins and evolution.
J.C. Kapteyn Lecture
The KNG, the Royal Natural Sciences Society (founded in 1801) organises the annual J.C. Kapteyn Lecture for a wide audience in cooperation with Studium Generale Groningen. The lecture is named after the renowned astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1851-1922), the first Professor of Astronomy at the University of Groningen and for many years a member of the board and chair of the scientific lectures chapter of the KNG.
In 2026, the Royal Netherlands Society for Natural Sciences (KNG) celebrates its 225th anniversary. You're invited to drinks afterwards to join in the celebration.
Photo: Frank Vinken
