He and his team also helped discover a new human species called the Denisovans by successfully extracting DNA from a small finger bone fragment found in a Siberian cave.For instance, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paabo found that people with greater amounts of Neanderthal DNA were more likely to become severely ill. Scientists used this information to understand more about how best to respond to newly infected individuals.“Trying to understand the implications of [ancient DNA] for health is something that will be with us for the rest of…our time as a species,” David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston told The National News when speaking of Paabo’s work.There, Paabo founded the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, where he now works.She sort of was very much into science, and very much stimulated and encouraged me through the years.”Paabo is also an adjunct professor at Japan’s Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology."