Fu Qiaomei prepares samples for the automated workstation. Photo: Courtesy of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Who are we? Where do we come from?  Since ancient times, people have never stopped the exploration of early civilization and the study of ancient DNA has opened a new window for cracking the code of human evolution.

Fu Qiaomei, the world's leading paleogeneticist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led her team to unravel one mystery after another about the origin and evolution of humans. 

Due to her outstanding and original work on establishing the genetic history of early humans on the Eurasian continent through the study of ancient genomes, Fu was awarded the UNESCO-AI Fozan International Prize for the Promotion of Young Scientists in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Paris on June 19, becoming the first Chinese scientist to win the prestigious prize. 

She was one of five young scientists from around the world to receive the prize and the laureates were selected from 2,500 candidates worldwide.

Shortly after winning the award, the laureate did not spend much time indulging in the happiness of receiving it. Instead, she immediately rushed back to her Beijing laboratory to resume her highly intensive research work.

"Past humans shaped the genetic patterns of humans today, influencing our health and adaptation to diverse environments," Fu said, noting the significance of the study of ancient humans.  

While the research of ancient DNA is not a "hotspot" research field, Fu devoted herself to it with full passion and love. 

"I was a curious child, fascinated by mysteries of the past and how they shape our present and future. That curiosity led me to pursue a career in genetics, in the field of ancient DNA," she said. In 2020, Fu delivered a speech at a symposium ­during which Chinese ­President Xi Jinping ­participated. 

Fu shared a question that she had frequently been asked over the years: what is the practical applicability of her study? She told Xi that she had once considered switching to a more popular research field when struggling to maintain her lab, but finally decided to stick to it. She added that she hoped the country would further guide the public's opinion on basic research, stating that "practical applicability" is not the only criterion for evaluation.

Impressed by what Fu said, Xi replied that unpopular subjects are considered useless, but such practice might hinder the development of these subjects. He told Fu that the evaluation of scientific research calls for insight, global vision and science-based analysis, people.cn reported.

Xi's words greatly inspired Fu. Standing on the global stage, the Chinese scientist now makes great contributions to the development of this field, which potentially can have far-reaching effects on people. Her professionalism, openness, diligence and broad vision make Fu an epitome of Chinese scientists, bringing on scientific development along with colleagues from all around the world. 

A modern-day drawing depicting the life of ancient humans at the Tianyuan Cave in Beijing Photo: Courtesy of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Groundbreaking research 

Born in 1983, Fu came from an ordinary family in East China's Jiangxi Province. From an early age, she exhibited an insatiable curiosity and an unwavering determination to understand the secrets that lie within human beings' genetic heritage.

In contrast to some people's stereotype of what a scientist looks like, Fu has a slender figure with long hair down to her shoulders. Dimples appear on her cheeks when she smiles and she speaks in a gentle tone, exuding elegance.

She is now a professor and director of Molecular Paleontology Laboratory at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the CAS in Beijing. She had assumed the director's role when she was 32.

Her research focuses on providing insight into the genetic history of humans, including who lived when and where and how they moved and interacted over time. Fu was also once a student of Svante Pääbo, the 2022 Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine. She is described by her teacher as one of his best students. 

According to media reports, a typical day of Fu starts from the early hour of five or six in the morning. Whether it is in the intervals between meetings or during trips, she effortlessly transitions into work mode as soon as she opens her computer. 

Her dedication to evolutionary genetics and population genetics has yielded significant insights into the history and biology of humans in Eurasia and innovative developments in related research methodologies. 

Among her achievements, Fu has retrieved ancient DNA from past human remains and sediments to construct an evolutionary map of Eurasian (especially East Asian) populations over the past 100,000 years. 

To date, Fu has authored 63 publications in international SCI journals, among which 36 were published as the first or corresponding author including three in Nature, four in Science and three in Cell.

Fu also led a team that decoded the world's and East Asia's earliest modern human genomes, unveiled many new insights into the genetic exchange between archaic and modern humans, and deeply elucidated the dynamics of East Asians over the past 40,000 years. 

In doing so, Fu and her team have filled important gaps in human history and pioneered new methods for expanding the geographic and temporal scope of ancient DNA acquisition worldwide.

A stamp issued by China Post for the DNA research into the prehistoric human migration in China Photo: Courtesy of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Some of Fu's research has investigated population changes and adaptations during the Ice Age in Eurasia. For example, the widely distributed population related to the Tianyuan Cave was found to have disappeared by the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (19,000 years ago). 

Subsequently, mutations in the EDAR gene emerged that are associated with typical features unique to East Asia such as thicker hair and more sweat glands, reflecting the influence of genetic selection in low ultraviolet environments.

"Ancient DNA research has provided insight into our biological makeup, with important implications," said Fu. 

"With ancient DNA, we can study the genetic makeup of past populations to better understand the origins of diseases, which motivates the development of new treatments," she said.

Fu also discovered many unique, unknown human lineages whose ancestries are not found today. In addition, she showed how some other ancestral lineages, such as northern and southern East Asians, greatly contributed to the genetic makeup of present-day East Asians, Austronesians and Native Americans.

These results reveal Eurasia's unique and unknown human diversity and illuminate how different ancestries have shaped the genetic makeup and adaptive traits of humans today.

"Our past guides how we face the challenges of the future," said Fu.