Jacob Hanna

Professor of Pluripotent Stem Cell Biology and Synthetic Embryology
Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Prof. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna is a Palestinian Scientist from the Weizmann Institute in Israel, pioneering techniques in induced pluripotency from adult cells and synthetic whole embryo models made solely from Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells in the petri dish without using sperm, egg or uterus. He was the first to expand prolonged periods of normal mammalian embryo development in an “artificial uterus” environment.  The latter enabled him to  be the first to generate advanced stage whole synthetic embryos made entirely from naïve iPS cells in the petri dish, that can demonstrate organ formation. He adapted these approaches to derive the first complete human embryo-like model equivalent to day 14.  He received numerous awards including the Rappaport Prize in biomedical research, a Krill Prize by the Wolf Foundation, the Kimmel Award, the Nakasone Prize by the HFSP in 2025 and in 2021 was ranked at the top of the list of 50 leading world thinkers by Prospect magazine.