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Prospects for the World Stem
Cell Hub¡¯s joint research projects with overseas institutes looked less
than bright on Tuesday, in the aftermath of a scandal surrounding its
former director, stem cell pioneer Prof. Hwang Woo-suk, and his team. Sung Myung-whun of the World Stem Cell Hub told a press conference
at Seoul National University Hospital on Tuesday many international
scientists said they understood Hwang¡¯s position but could not entirely
accept it. The press conference was called to announce the result of
Prof. Ahn Cu-rie¡¯s business trip to Japan and the U.S. last week. Ahn
is in charge of clinical experiments at the center. In a statement read by Sung, Ahn said the outlook for future
cooperation with foreign research institutes was not rosy, adding
researchers at the hub felt it was vital to keep up with global ethics
standard in future research. But the professor said the research must continue, pointing
out that the American Journal of Ethics recently published an article
that praised as a ¡°meaningful development¡± research by Hwang¡¯s team on
cloning embryonic stem cells that match the DNA of patients, which was
published in the journal Science this year. Meanwhile, the National Bioethics Committee met Tuesday to
review the ethics scandal centered on the way Hwang¡¯s team obtained
human egg cells for cloning. The committee sees an in-house
investigation by the Institutional Review Board of SNU¡¯s School of
Veterinary Science, which cleared Hwang of ethical violations, as
insufficient. It will ask Hwang and his team to submit related
documents, making a final decision on the issue after reviewing them
for two weeks.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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