Jacob (Yaqub) H. Hanna (Arabic: Yaqub or Yaoub; born 26 August 1979) is a Palestinian biologist, born with Israeli citizenship, who is working as a Full Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. An expert in embryonic stem cell research, he is most recognized for developing the first bona fide Structured Stem cell-derived Synthetic Embryo Models (SEMs) in the petri dish in mice and humans. To achieve this, he first developed a technique for extended culturing mouse embryos outside the uterus (ex utero) in 2021 capturing normal development from before gastrulation until late organogenesis outside the uterus, subsequently applying his technique for making the first high-fidelity stem cell-derived whole embryo models of mice in 2022 (SEMs), and then of human in 2023 that can be made solely from embryonic pluripotent stem cells, without using egg or sperm and generated entirely outside the womb. SEMs are also known as "Stem-Cell-Based complete Embryo Models - SCBEMs", "Synthetic Embryos" or "High Fidelity Whole Embryo Models"). Hanna pioneered the extended static and dynamic post-implantation ex utero whole embryo growth platform that was critical for enabling the synthetic and structured embryo model establishment, and also pioneered developing the technology to generate alternative naive-like and naive pluripotent states in humans, that correspond to more early stages in development and retain an enhanced potential to make essential extra-embryonic tissue (e.g. placenta and yolk-sac), which proved essential for generating the first complete synthetic embryo models by his team and solely from such naive pluripotent cells.
Education Hanna has a PhD in microbiology and immunology and an MD in clinical medicine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. To train in stem cell research, he worked from 2007 to 2011 as a Helen Hay Whitney - Novartis postdoctoral fellow and a Genzyme postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, under Rudolf Jaenisch. In 2011, Hanna joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as an assistant professor in 2011, and has been there ever since. In 2018, Hanna received academic tenure and promotion at the Department of Molecular Genetics in the Weizmann Institute, and in 2023 became a Full Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Synthetic Embryology. Hanna was listed in 2014 among top 40 under 40 leading international scientists by Cell journal and elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2018. In 2021, he was announced as the top thinker of the year 2021 by Prospect magazine for his works on embryology. His extended ex utero embryo culture was selected among Science Magazine Breakthrough of the year 2021, and his mouse complete synthetic embryo models were selected by Nature magazine among seven technologies to watch in 2023. Human complete stem-cell derived embryo model generated by Hanna was selected by TIME in its featured list of inventions in 2023, and the generation of synthetic embryo models of development through using stem cells was selected as the method of the year 2023 by Nature Methods. He is the recipient of the 2025 Nakasone Award by the Human Frontiers Science Program – HFSP for " developing synthetic embryo models from naïve pluripotent stem cells, which provides a new foundation for developmental biology and regenerative medicine strategies."[1](Hanna's 2025 Nakasone Award Lecture)
Early life Hanna was born in Rameh, an Arab village in the Galilee region of Israel to a Palestinian Christian family. His father was a pediatrician and his mother was a high-school biology teacher. His grandfather was also a doctor in this village. He studied medical science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, obtaining a B.Sc. degree summa cum laude in 2001, and then continued to do an M.D.-Ph.D. degree at the same institute. He indicated in his interviews that his decision to undertake a career in research was heavily influenced and inspired by the success of his uncle, Nabil Hanna, who invented the first FDA-approved antibody therapy in humans (Rituxan, a blockbuster anti-CD20 mAb drug for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma) while serving as chief scientific office of IDEC Pharmaceuticals. His Ph.D. research was supervised by Ofer Mandelboim and was on the roles of natural killer cells. In 2007, the Hebrew University awarded him both Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology and M.D. in clinical medicine summa cum laude. Hanna's three sisters also studied medicine in the Hebrew University. Hanna decided not to go into practicing medicine but focus only on developing his research career in Academia. In 2007, he received the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, and later a Genzyme-Whitehead Fellowship for outstanding postdoctoral fellows in 2009, by which he worked at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research there till early 2011 under Rudolf Jaenisch helped him specialize in pluripotent stem cell research and induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming.
Research and discoveries
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