Pääbo-17/8 Final questions

Salut Emilie!

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?

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 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?

Why did you use the nuclear DNA and not the mitochondrial DNA? What is the difference between both of them?

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

How do you react to critics of some scientifics? (multiregionalists, paleontologists)
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?

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

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?