Nobel Prize winner discovers COVID risk is handed down from Neanderthals

A Swedish scientist whose work has helped unlock the genetic secrets of human evolution is the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine. Svante Paabo - the director of a German institute for evolutionary anthropology - has been credited for transforming the study of DNA sequences from archaeological and paleontological remains.

Swedish scientist Svante Paabo stands by a replica of a Neanderthal skeleton Source: AAP / Hendrik Schmidt/AP