Comment on Dr Hwang Woo-Suk, discredited Korean Scientist

Why has it caused a scandal?

Dr Hwang was thought to be a world leader in the field of stem cell research. However, just before Christmas he was forced to resign from his research post at Seoul University in South Korea, due to concerns regarding the ethics of his research methods and the fabrication of results. An academic panel of the university have concluded that the results from two of his research papers are false.

What did Dr Hwang claim to have done?

The first of these papers grabbed the headlines in 2004. This report, a world first, claimed that Dr Hwang’s team in South Korea had successfully cloned a human embryo, using a technique known as somatic cell nuclear replacement or ‘therapeutic cloning’. (Somatic cells describe every cell in the body that are not eggs or sperm; the ‘nuclear’ refers to the compartment of every cell that contains our DNA – the nucleus).

What is 'Somatic cell nuclear replacement'?

This involves taking an adult cell (generally a skin cell) and removing the DNA from this cell. The DNA would also be removed from an unfertilised egg. The DNA from the adult cell is inserted into the egg, the egg is then treated in the laboratory to stimulate it to grow and divide in the normal way. After a few days embryonic stem cells are formed within the egg (at this stage of development the egg is known as a blastocyst).

Hwang claimed to have removed the stem cells from the blastocyst and successfully grown them in plastic dishes in the laboratory. Creating what is known as a stem cell line – a resource for future stem cell research.

Tailored stem cells may reduce 'transplant' rejection

Dr Hwang’s second discredited paper built on the results of his first paper. Rather than taking adult skin cells from healthy volunteers, the skin cells were taken from people with ‘disease or injury’. From these cells (and the respective egg cells), 11 stem cell lines were created. In theory, as these stem cells had the same genetic make up as the person with the disease, the potential problems with transplant rejection may have been avoided - improving any stem cell therapies that may be developed in the future.

Has anyone else done this type of research?

As mentioned above, the panel concluded that the results of these two papers were falsified. There has only been one other report in this area of research, and this came from a research group at the University of Newcastle, UK. They reported a more limited success, with successful creation of blastocysts from ‘therapeutic cloning’ only (i.e. they were not able to create 'stem cell lines'). The results of this study are not in question.

The Newcastle team holds one of only two licences that have been granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the UK for this type of research. The other was granted last year to Professors Ian Wilmut and Chris Shaw, who obtained permission to work on a MND-related stem cell project.