Swedish paleogeneticist Svante Paabo, who sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal and discovered the previously unknown hominin Denisova, on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize.
"By revealing genetic differences that distinguish all living humans from extinct hominins, his discoveries provide the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human", the Nobel committee said.
Paabo found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens.
"This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections", the jury said.
Paabo, 67, who takes home the award sum of 10 million Swedish kronor ($901,500), will receive the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.
Last year, the Medicine Prize went to US pair David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch, which have been used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.
The Nobel season continues this week with the announcement of the winners of the Physics Prize on Tuesday and the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday.
They will be followed by the much-anticipated prizes for Literature on Thursday and Peace on Friday.
Among those cited as possible Peace Prize laureates are the International Criminal Court, tasked with investigating war crimes in Ukraine; jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny; and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The Economics Prize winds things up on Monday, October 10.