To Clarify Causes of Diseases and Developing New Drugs: Prof. Hwang and His Colleagues Opens WSCH at SNU Hospital To Play Pivotal Research Role
President Roh Moo-hyun (fourth from right) and his wife Kwon Yang-sook (Roh's left) applaud the opening of the World Stem Cell Hub inside Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital in Seoul on October 19.
The World Stem Cell Hub (WSCH) opened in Seoul on Oct. 19, with the goal of facilitating international cooperation in stem cell research. The WSCH, funded by the government for up to K 6.5 billion (US$6.5 million), started its operations at the Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital in central Seoul, to play a pivotal research role in such promising fields as cellular differentiation and the development of new drugs. President Roh Moo-hyun said that the government would fully support stem cell research to fight hard-to-cure diseases and try to resolve ethical issues surrounding stem cell research so that objections will not hinder advances in stem cell therapy. "Our politicians will do their job to resolve the ethical issues, enabling scientists to concentrate on their studies," Roh said in a speech at the opening ceremony for the research center. Apart from Prof. Hwang Woo-suk at the SNU, some 300 guests gathered at the event, including other prestigious stem cell scientists such as Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute, who cloned Dolly the Sheep; Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh; Robert Goldstein of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and Robert N. Klein of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "Down the road, stem cell hubs will be launched in the United States and Britain. We are now in talks with these countries to open the hubs with the aim of forging a global network," said Kim Sung-soo, an official at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. "The bank will solidify Korea's status as a leader in stem cell research at a time when other nations are competing fiercely in this promising field. The WSCH will play the role of a stem cell bank in preparation for the time when stem cells are applied to therapy in the future," said Kim. The WSCH said it will tackle social and ethical issues in its committee, consisting of religious leaders, government officials and other experts. It also plans to conduct research involving stem cells from adults and not subject to ethical debates. Adult stem cells have been favored by the Korean Catholic community as an alternative to embryonic cells. The Korean Catholic church said early this month that it plans to donate 10 billion won (US$961 million) for adult stem cell research, the largest amount ever funded by the Catholics for stem cell research. Prof. Hwang revealed the plan to open the WSCH in late May after he surprised the world by announcing that his team had cultivated 11 customized stem cell batches by cloning somatic cells from as many patients with spinal cord injuries and other chronic diseases. Prof. Hwang stunned the world in April 2004 by cloning human embryos for the first time to obtain stem cells. He and his colleagues created human embryos by adding a somatic cell to an egg, enlarging the availability of stem cells. A human embryo was previously created only in a vitro-fertilization procedure. Hwang made further news in May 2005 by developing stem cells tailored to individual patients. Earlier this month, his research team announced it had become the first team to successfully clone a dog, moving one step closer to investigation of some incurable human diseases. Stem cells are primitive "master cells" which are capable of developing into specific types of cells. These can then replace ailing cells in patients. Korean and foreign scientists will work on directing the growth of stem cells into stable cell types of tissues or organs, clarifying the cause of diseases and developing new drugs.
Prof. Hwang and his global colleagues also checked the viability of fighting acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with their embryonic stem cell research. The team was out to beat one of nature's most feared killers during the 2005 Seoul Bio-Medi Symposium. AIDS refers to a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the depletion of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). High-profile scientists from across the world presented diametrically disparate opinions on the feasibility of cloning human babies during the Seoul symposium held on Oct. 18, at COEX in southern Seoul. Hosted by Korea International Trade Association, the symposium brought the world's illustrious embryologists to discuss the emerging area of embryonic stem cell research. Responding to ethical concerns on embryonic stem cell research, worldfamous embryologists contended that the cloning of a human, called reproductive human cloning, is technically implausible. Prof. Gerald P. Schatten at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine showed how Hwang's research can be used to fight AIDS, which claims millions of lives annually. "We will be able to make a person have immunity against HIV through blocking HIV receptors from infecting him. Then his somatic cells can be cloned to produce HIV-resistant cells," Schatten said. Schatten added that he is not sure of the success of the new therapy. However, it would provide hope for AIDS sufferers. Even though treatment for AIDS exists, there is no cure. At the symposium, Prof. Schatten said, "Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) captivate medical attention due to their unique properties of unlimited self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation. ESC lines have only been established robustly and investigated intensively in mice (mESCs). Recently, it was investigated only here in Korea by Prof. Hwang Woo-suk and his colleagues at the Seoul National University in humans patients (hESCs) after derivations from fertilizedblastocysts and after nuclear transfer (NT-mESCs, NT-hESCs)." Prof. Schatten concurred saying, "I don't care what some scientists say about human cloning. They will fail biologically. We are hopeful that under the direction of Hwang, discoveries made here in Korea will be available to Asia as well as all the world." In fact, Schatten said last December that reproductive primate cloning is a remote possibility at the moment after his team attempted to clone monkeys with 135 embryos. However, no pregnancies were established. The remarks are identical to those of their closest colleague, Prof. Hwang, who has cloned human somatic cells to culture an embryonic stem cell line in 2003. During a press meeting in late July, the 52-year-old Hwang insisted that cloning a human will be technically impossible for the next 100 years. "Even if some rogue scientists attempt it (reproductive cloning research), we will not able to produce a human clone for at least another century," he claimed. Hwang's team has carried out the embryonic stem cell research in question for therapeutic purposes as the parent cells can be used to treat such degenerative diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The latest achievement may be less sensational but less burdensome ethically than Prof. Hwang Woo-suk's method of using replicated embryos, which has yet to be patented in the U.S. It is a welcome refresher for Koreans tired of political wrangling and the economic slump. The new procedure harvests stem cells by thawing frozen embryos left unused from in-vitro fertilization, which otherwise are abandoned after five years' storage. As this method uses normally fertilized embryos, their replication is fundamentally impossible, helping to ease ethical concerns. An immediate task is how to solve the immunity rejection symptoms that might occur in the course of transplanting stem cells to patients. Addressing this and other problems would require numerous animal and clinical tests - time and money, in other words. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has provided about US$800,000 in subsidies, but it has to increase the financial backing to turn Korea into a stem-cell powerhouse. It is also hard to understand why the Korean Intellectual Property Office delays patenting it. Technological endeavors and accomplishments, however, cannot make Korea a biotech hub, unless accompanied by corresponding attention to ethical debates. The U.S. pro-life legislators are even vetoing federal financing for seemingly harmless approaches by international standards. The scientists need to maintain close consultation with religious circles and share their agony over the dignity of life. It is reassuring in this regard that Korean researchers have recently adopted a charter of ethics. ¡Ú
