Pääbo-17/8 Final questions

GENERAL

• During your research, you often spent a lot of time on one specific aspect (for example reducing contamination as much as possible): what gave you the motivation to continue despite the hurdles that you were faced with ? And now that you have achieved your goal, what is your new objective ?

• What motivated you to write a book about your research? What did you gain from this experience as a writer for lay people on a personal and professional level? If you had to do it again, would you do it?

• When do you know that it is finally time to end a given research and publish your results?

• How do you react to critics of some scientists concerning your results? (multiregionalists, paleontologists)

• Could you reexplain the main differences between the two main theories: out of Africa and multiregionalism? Have they evolved since the writing of your book?

• What are the advantages and disadvantages to the multidisciplinary approach of the Max Planck Institute in Leibzig?

• How do you finance the research in your Institute?

• How do you manage to stay on top of the research done in your Institute when you probably have to travel a lot?

• What are the different sides of your professional life?

TECHNIQUES

• You have witnessed big progresses in biotechnologies during your career, for example with the PCR which gives better results than cloning with plasmid vectors. Do you believe that as of today PCR is the best method to amplify DNA or that it will be replaced by faster and more precise biotechnologies in the future?

• How do contaminations occur precisely? Can some be negligible , in case of a doubt or is there a threshold? How can the Neanderthal DNA be contaminated despite the protection in a Cleanroom? How can one be sure that no contamination has taken place?

• How do you synthesise primers which are specific to the neanderthal mitochondrial DNA? We know how to synthesise primers but we don't really know how to make them specific. Could you explain this to us?

INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

• When sequencing a DNA sample, how can you be sure that it is from Neandertal and is not part of the variable sequences of the human DNA?

• How can you deduce the history of mankind from one DNA sample?

• Have you found single-nucleopolymorphism (SNP) between different genomes of Neanderthalians? Are they located at the same position as in the human genome?

PERSPECTIVES

• If you would have to do the same project again today, what would you change? (technical changes, proceedings, contact with people...)

• What is the future of human DNA sequencing in the field of medicine, biology, pharmaceutics,etc.? How might the sequencing of the Neanderthal DNA affect the research of human DNA? In which fields have these studies already been used and where could they potentially be used?

• What advice would you give us to help us succeed in the field of research?

• How and why does the primer bind specifically with the mitochondrial DNA and not with human mitochondrial DNA, although you are searching for similarities between these two species?