"From Stem Cells to Organs"
Yakoub Hanna

Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna, Ph.D. – M.D.
Associate Professor, The Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Dr. Hanna earned a B.Sc. in Medical Sciences (2001, summa cum laude), and a PhD/MD in clinical medicine (2007, summa cum laude), all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. For more than four years, he conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical. In his recently established lab at the Weizmann Institute, Dr. Hanna combines diverse experimentation methods with computational biology to explore topics in embryonic stem cell biology, early embryonic development and the modeling of human diseases. Projects include deciphering the mechanisms by which IPS and germ cells are produced, characterizing unique naïve human pluripotent stem cells and various stages in early human development. In addition to helping elucidate the molecular basis of cell reprogramming, this research offers the promise of creating powerful research models for infertility, degenerative and autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

His numerous honors and fellowships include a Novartis Fellowship by the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (2007), a Genzyme-Whitehead Fellowship for outstanding postdoctoral fellows (2009), the TR35 award by MIT review magazine for young innovators (2010), the Rappaport prize in biomedical research (2013), the Krill prize by the Wolf Foundation for outstanding research achievements (2013), a European Research Council early career development awards (2011 & 2017), EMBO member (2017) and was recently featured among “40 under 40” innovative scientists by Cell press (2014).