José Silva & Lab
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josesilvalab.bsky.social
José Silva & Lab
@josesilvalab.bsky.social
Reprogramming cells for fun and to create embryo models in the tropical Greater Bay Area

https://www.jose-silva-lab.com/ 🇵🇹🇨🇳🇬🇧

Guangzhou/Cantāo 🌴☀️, China中国
To us, this was both unexpected and very interesting.
October 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
In our case, we successfully obtained embryo-like structures; however, although the cells were reprogrammed to an earlier developmental stage, they did not appear to generate precursors. Instead, they transitioned directly into the various early embryonic fates.
October 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Thank you for the comment and question. We think that if we can reprogram cells into precursors of all embryonic lineages, they should then be able to self-organize into an embryo model.
October 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
(8/8) Our v1.0, limitations remain (see Limitations section), but we hope, alongside other models, it can help advance human embryogenesis research.

Visit the lab website for free access to our study (under publications section)
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(7/8) There’s more inside: signaling landscapes, PGCs, primary-to-secondary yolk sac transition…
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(6/8) The molecular signatures show strong alignment and high identity scores with human embryo references.
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(5/8) ….And they keep going, entering gastrulation!
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(4/8) If these cells can generate all early fates, then they should be able to do so in a self-organized manner, forming embryo-like structures……. and they did! (All we had to do was sit back and let the cells do their work.)
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(3/8) The results went beyond expectations: alongside naïve epi, TE & hypoblast, we also saw extraembryonic mesoderm emerge 🤯
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(2/8) From our work in the mouse system we hypothesised that STAT3 could reprogram human cells from a post- to a pre-implantation fate, but the breakthrough came only after we also added TGFβ inhibition.
September 16, 2025 at 4:12 PM
(3/3) Fast forward ⏩ @cc0447.bsky.social Jinyi Wu et al. investigated this in human cells. Curious to see what they pulled off? Stay tuned!
September 15, 2025 at 1:51 AM
(2/3) … this was actually a side finding in that study🙃

www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...

However, we thought this could be paralleling early embryo development and have since been exploring it to generate embryo models.
Distinct Molecular Trajectories Converge to Induce Naive Pluripotency
Stuart et al. report distinct routes of reprogramming to naive pluripotency. These differ in their transcriptional trajectories, mechanistic requirements, and developmental parallels, thus demonstrati...
www.cell.com
September 15, 2025 at 1:51 AM
I believe they will, but we’re not there yet.
September 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
😀
September 9, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Thank you so much Alex!
August 7, 2025 at 8:56 PM
A big thanks to all authors, especially Professor Naihe Jing and Penglei Shen for guiding our embryo model into organogenesis, and to our PhD students Jiahui Huang and Wei Guan for their efforts. And of course, to Huanhuan Li, the driving force behind this work.( 3/3)
August 7, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Starting from PSCs, a brief reprogramming step gives rise to “embryo founder-like cells” (EFCs). EFCs segregate embryonic and extraembryonic lineages and self-organize to closely mirror natural embryo development, both morphologically and at the molecular level.
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
August 7, 2025 at 3:58 PM