Jacob Hanna: "We will not implant synthetic embryos in human wombs"

He confesses that it is not his way of working, but the commotion caused by the publicity of the synthetic human embryo models from the “competition” laboratory, forces him to contextualize this progress. Jacob Hanna develops his work at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences, in Rehovot (Israel) and the team he leads is the protagonist of one of the latest milestones in science: synthetic human embryos created from stem cells.

Until now, his work had not managed to capture so many spotlights, he explained to EL MUNDO in a video call, “because first we had to publish the results in a scientific journal”. But, he takes responsibility for his discoveries and sees the need to clarify the intentions of his research.

Faced with the controversy unleashed by the advances made by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz in The Guardian, the Palestinian scientist stresses that “to speak to the media, you always have to have complete data and studies so that journalists can seek assessments. We are dealing with a very sensitive issue.”

The first thing that has been known about his synthetic embryo model has been through a preprint published hours before the Cambridge-Caltech one.. Had you already submitted the work? Yes. This is an advance that we have been communicating in different conferences for about six months. Then the news of the other group's communication broke. Our data supports the progress. Normally we don't talk to the press until we have the endorsement of their review and publication in an official journal. When will your work be ready for it? Currently the preprint is being peer reviewed. And in a while it will see the light in an important publication. At the moment, I cannot give more information due to the confidentiality of these processes. Some consider the announcement of these advances a competition, is that correct? We have previously published papers together in Nature. The only bad thing I see about the announcement made by the Cambridge group is that when you want to communicate this type of progress to the media, you must have a series of data that supports the work, a preprint or similar, so that journalists can consult with other scientists. And this was not done like that, there was nothing to assess and this leads to misinformation and the publication of alarmist news that is not true. We have a great responsibility as scientists before society and the media. While the details of the official publication arrive, what are the advances you have made in the laboratory with human embryo models? We've been researching this for a long time.. First we made a lot of progress with the realization of the mouse models made from stem cells. The challenge was to transfer this to human models. Many wonder what is being pursued with all these advances. Create life? No. We will never implant a synthetic embryo model in a womb. Biologically it is impossible. Nor are we doing it to demonstrate any kind of ability in cell manipulation, but we want to provide answers to the unknowns of this stage and for that we are going to use stem cells from any part of the body, reverse them until they become embryonic. And we can also see the utility in the field of transplants. What answers are they looking for? All the mechanisms of the different organs of the body begin in the embryo. All organs are formed between day 7 and 35, and the rest of the remaining eight months is just the growth of the fetus.. In the initial stage, the embryo is a cell mass that is adopting key changes. Women do not even know that they are pregnant and there is no other way to find out what happens in these first days. What are these prototypes going to be useful for? Once we validate them, we will be able to know and respond to the pathologies that originate in this stage, for example. And even testing drugs, because regulatory authorities, such as the FDA, prevent clinical trials in pregnant women.. These embryo models will teach us a lot about the most important stages of cell development.. In the scientific community, as well as in society, there is a demand for a new regulation on this type of approach. Do you think it is necessary? No, the truth is that a year ago new lines were already marked out on this type of essay. The International Society for Stem Cell Research has already modified the requirements that are currently necessary. I understand the reluctance, but all our tests comply with current regulations.