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Scientist: Stem Cell Work Will Aid Humans

Posted on: Friday, 20 May 2005, 12:00 CDT

SEOUL, South Korea -- A leading stem cell researcher said Friday it will be years - and maybe decades - before recent breakthroughs by his team of scientists will benefit humans, but he expressed high hopes that they'll eventually help people with incurable diseases.

South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-ksuk was tired but elated after returning from a trip to the United States, where the prestigious journal Science published a review of his work, then to Britain, where he agreed to join forces with a researcher at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute to fight Lou Gherig's disease.

Hwang's team, who shocked the world last year by cloning a human embryo, has recently been credited with another major breakthrough - creating the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients.

The genetic match means the stem cells, the building blocks that give rise to all the tissue in the body, are unlikely to be rejected by the body's immune system. Stem cell researchers hope the cells can be used to repair damage caused by disease.

Other scientists have lauded the advances made by Hwang's team - and their speed. But Hwang, a professor at Seoul National University, said the researchers were working methodically, especially due to ethical concerns.

"We already had the technological know-how last year, at the time of the human embryo cloning," Hwang told a crowd of reporters who met him at Incheon International Airport near Seoul. "But our team imposed a moratorium on our own, because there were ethical issues."

"In conducting the new process, we've abided by domestic law governing life ethics and the regulations of the Institutional Review Board," he said, without elaborating.

Last year, his team of researchers cloned stem cells from one healthy woman. This year, they created 11 batches of stem cells that genetically match males and females with either spinal cord injuries, diabetes or a genetic immune disease.

"It means that we can create stem cells using the ... cells of patients regardless of sex and age," Hwang said.

Still, the researchers were cautious about giving a possible timeframe on when patients suffering from incurable diseases would benefit.

"Some foreign researchers have said three to five decades, some have said in just several years," said Ahn Curie, a doctor of transplantation medicine at Seoul National University Hospital and a member of Hwang's team. "We will work hard, but we don't want to raise false expectations."

Unlike many of his colleagues around the world, Hwang receives full government support. The South Korean government this year provided 2 billion won (US$2 million; euro1.6 million) in pure stem research funds to Hwang's team, and 24.5 billion won (US$24.4 million; euro19.3 million) in facility assistance for stem-cell and other research.

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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this story from Washington.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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