Like many children of the ’90s, Alejandro De Los Angeles first learned about the code of life from Mr. DNA — that animated, double-helixed tour guide that appears early on in the movie “Jurassic Park.” “This idea of genetically engineering the resurrection of dinosaurs, that was something that was really cool to me,” he said.
That fascination with remaking life would lead him not to de-extinction but to stem cells, first at Stanford using them to repair stroke damage in the brains of mice, then as a Fulbright scholar honing methods for reprogramming cells to younger, more pliable states using clues from human eggs. His cellular sleuthing later punctured a controversial claim about pluripotent stem cells created from a simple chemical cocktail. (In fact, the cells had been contaminated.)
While earning a Ph.D. at Oxford focused on how genes linked to psychiatric conditions cause problems early in embryonic development, he got hooked on another use for stem cells — using them to create embryo models. With this powerful new tool for shining a light into the black box of early human development, scientists have successfully mimicked the first 14 days of human life inside a Petri dish. De Los Angeles wants to push the models closer to recapitulating 28 days of development, and recently co-authored a roadmap in Nature for how to do so responsibly.
It’s a project he’s pursuing now at the University of Central Florida, where he started medical school in August. The move brings him closer to family and also Disney World, a beloved childhood vacation spot. He bought an annual pass so he can recharge there whenever he has free time. “I don’t know if this is embarrassing or something to be proud of,” he said. “But yeah, I’m a huge Disney fan.”
The “Jurassic Park” theme park, owned by cross-town rival Universal Studios, is also nearby. De Los Angeles hasn’t been yet, but he’s more inspired by the film than ever. Its central message — that scientific capability does not automatically confer moral permission — is exactly why he’s devoting efforts to building ethical frameworks for the technologies he and others are advancing in the lab.
— Megan Molteni
