FROM: New York Times
May 31, 2005

Without Apology, Leaping Ahead in Cloning
By JAMES BROOKE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/science/31kore.html
SEOUL, South Korea, May 30 - A microneedle had squeezed out all the
genetic material from a freshly harvested human egg. Now, in the shadows
of a darkened laboratory, a technician in a blue jumpsuit prodded and
probed the egg's outer membrane on Monday morning, seeking to introduce a
skin cell from a patient with an immune deficiency.

Finally, on the third probe, the rubbery wall gave way. Magnified 250
times on a black-and-white screen, the egg could be seen making room for
the new skin cell, with its new genetic code.

"I never destroy any life during my process," said Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, the
laboratory director, his eyes flashing above his surgical mask as he gave
a reporter a rare look at the controversial human-cell transfer process
developed at this small lab on the sixth floor of Building No. 85 at
Seoul National University.

To his supporters, Dr. Hwang's report on May 20 that he had created new
colonies of stem cells that matched the DNA of their donors was a major
leap toward the dream of growing replacement tissues for conditions like
spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and congenital immune
deficiencies.

This hope was captured in a postage stamp issued this year by South
Korea. Next to an image of a green needle introducing a cell into a human
egg, a series of silhouettes show a man rising from a wheelchair,
walking, leaping and, finally, embracing a standing woman.

But to his detractors - and there are many around the world and here in
Korea - Dr. Hwang is tampering with human life, pushing science down a
slippery slope that will lead one day to the cloning of human babies.

In Rome, Msgr. Elio Sgreccia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life of
the Roman Catholic Church, told Vatican Radio that the research was
comparable to cloning embryos, which he called a violation of human
rights.

Last week, President Bush announced that he would veto any legislation to
allow public financing for research on stem cells created with newly
harvested human eggs, saying, "I worry about a world in which cloning
would be acceptable."

Perspiring in the incubator laboratory, kept at a tropical 79 degrees,
Dr. Hwang responded to these critics as he often has. "We use only a
vacant egg, with no genetic materials," he said, moving back and forth
between English and Korean. Eggs are never fertilized, he said, arguing
that embryos are never formed.

Touching the core sensitivity, he added, "We have never attempted human
cloning."

Many scientists and ethicists disagree, saying that whatever the intent
of the Korean research, the entities it produces are embryos and the
process is human cloning. Still, the choice is simple to Dr. Hwang, 52, a
veterinarian by training, who has debated the ethics of his research
since he started working on cloning pigs and cows a decade ago.

"On one hand, you have 15 micrometers of skin cells, on the other a
patient who has suffered from an incurable disease," he said Monday.
"Maybe this 15 micrometers of skin cell can relieve and save the life of
a human being next to me, someone who has suffered for 50 years or must
suffer for 50 years. Of the two, which do you think is ethically
reasonable to save?"

The choice is clear to the South Korean authorities, who recently
approved a 50 percent increase in the $2 million budget for his
biomedical research unit, which has 45 researchers and technicians and
has largely been dedicated to animal research. The government also
announced that construction would start next year on a six-story $25
million building here, reserved for Dr. Hwang's research. And by the end
of this year, the government has agreed to open an international stem
cell bank.

The choice is also clear to the American, British, Japanese, Swedish and
Spanish researchers who are hurrying to this verdant hilly campus in
southern Seoul. The latest roll call of American institutions that are
seeking collaborations with Dr. Hwang include Cornell, Johns Hopkins and
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Deeply immersed in their research, the Koreans often work seven days a
week, sometimes spending nights at the laboratory. Dr. Hwang gave an
interview in an office where a wash basin held a toothbrush and a full
toiletry kit.

With his laboratory handling 1,400 eggs a day from cows and pigs, he has
already produced five genetically modified cows in the hope that they
will be resistant to mad cow disease.

Now, he said, he wants to speed up practical applications of his human
stem cell research. This year, he hopes to use animal stem cells to treat
spinal cord injuries in rats, dogs and, possibly, monkeys. If the animal
trials go well, he hopes to apply for permission in South Korea and the
United States to start conducting human trials in two to three years.

"I hope we can apply these wonderful technologies, not only for my
generation, but also for my mother's generation," Dr. Hwang said.

Widowed when her son was 5, Dr. Hwang's mother supported her six children
by helping neighbors care for their cows. (She is 89 now.) On the wall of
his office is an old black-and-white photograph of Dr. Hwang as a boy
with cows.

"I could communicate to cows eye to eye," Dr. Hwang, the father of two
sons, said. "I want my laboratory to communicate with cells heart to
heart."

Of the human material cultivated with the new genetic codes, he said: "If
there are no humans beside the incubators, they may feel very lonely. So
I discussed with my members. We decided that someone has to be beside the
incubators and talking to the cells."

In the laboratory, the technician peered intently into her
micromanipulator, racing against time to insert one round skin cell into
each of seven human eggs that the laboratory had received that day from a
fertility clinic. Stripped of their genetic protein, eggs die after two
hours.

Dr. Hwang called the work "holy, pure and genuine in trying to develop
therapeutic technology to cure hard to treat diseases."

He disclaimed any personal financial interest in the research, noting
that the patents would be going to the South Korean government.

"I want to be remembered in history as a pure scientist," he said. "I
want this technology applied to the whole of mankind."



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May 31, 2005
Without Apology, Leaping Ahead in Cloning
By JAMES BROOKE
SEOUL, South Korea, May 30 - A microneedle had squeezed out all the
genetic material from a freshly harvested human egg. Now, in the shadows
of a darkened laboratory, a technician in a blue jumpsuit prodded and
probed the egg's outer membrane on Monday morning, seeking to introduce a
skin cell from a patient with an immune deficiency.

Finally, on the third probe, the rubbery wall gave way. Magnified 250
times on a black-and-white screen, the egg could be seen making room for
the new skin cell, with its new genetic code.

"I never destroy any life during my process," said Dr. Woo Suk Hwang, the
laboratory director, his eyes flashing above his surgical mask as he gave
a reporter a rare look at the controversial human-cell transfer process
developed at this small lab on the sixth floor of Building No. 85 at
Seoul National University.

To his supporters, Dr. Hwang's report on May 20 that he had created new
colonies of stem cells that matched the DNA of their donors was a major
leap toward the dream of growing replacement tissues for conditions like
spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and congenital immune
deficiencies.

This hope was captured in a postage stamp issued this year by South
Korea. Next to an image of a green needle introducing a cell into a human
egg, a series of silhouettes show a man rising from a wheelchair,
walking, leaping and, finally, embracing a standing woman.

But to his detractors - and there are many around the world and here in
Korea - Dr. Hwang is tampering with human life, pushing science down a
slippery slope that will lead one day to the cloning of human babies.

In Rome, Msgr. Elio Sgreccia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life of
the Roman Catholic Church, told Vatican Radio that the research was
comparable to cloning embryos, which he called a violation of human
rights.

Last week, President Bush announced that he would veto any legislation to
allow public financing for research on stem cells created with newly
harvested human eggs, saying, "I worry about a world in which cloning
would be acceptable."

Perspiring in the incubator laboratory, kept at a tropical 79 degrees,
Dr. Hwang responded to these critics as he often has. "We use only a
vacant egg, with no genetic materials," he said, moving back and forth
between English and Korean. Eggs are never fertilized, he said, arguing
that embryos are never formed.

Touching the core sensitivity, he added, "We have never attempted human
cloning."

Many scientists and ethicists disagree, saying that whatever the intent
of the Korean research, the entities it produces are embryos and the
process is human cloning. Still, the choice is simple to Dr. Hwang, 52, a
veterinarian by training, who has debated the ethics of his research
since he started working on cloning pigs and cows a decade ago.

"On one hand, you have 15 micrometers of skin cells, on the other a
patient who has suffered from an incurable disease," he said Monday.
"Maybe this 15 micrometers of skin cell can relieve and save the life of
a human being next to me, someone who has suffered for 50 years or must
suffer for 50 years. Of the two, which do you think is ethically
reasonable to save?"

The choice is clear to the South Korean authorities, who recently
approved a 50 percent increase in the $2 million budget for his
biomedical research unit, which has 45 researchers and technicians and
has largely been dedicated to animal research. The government also
announced that construction would start next year on a six-story $25
million building here, reserved for Dr. Hwang's research. And by the end
of this year, the government has agreed to open an international stem
cell bank.

The choice is also clear to the American, British, Japanese, Swedish and
Spanish researchers who are hurrying to this verdant hilly campus in
southern Seoul. The latest roll call of American institutions that are
seeking collaborations with Dr. Hwang include Cornell, Johns Hopkins and
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Deeply immersed in their research, the Koreans often work seven days a
week, sometimes spending nights at the laboratory. Dr. Hwang gave an
interview in an office where a wash basin held a toothbrush and a full
toiletry kit.

With his laboratory handling 1,400 eggs a day from cows and pigs, he has
already produced five genetically modified cows in the hope that they
will be resistant to mad cow disease.

Now, he said, he wants to speed up practical applications of his human
stem cell research. This year, he hopes to use animal stem cells to treat
spinal cord injuries in rats, dogs and, possibly, monkeys. If the animal
trials go well, he hopes to apply for permission in South Korea and the
United States to start conducting human trials in two to three years.

"I hope we can apply these wonderful technologies, not only for my
generation, but also for my mother's generation," Dr. Hwang said.

Widowed when her son was 5, Dr. Hwang's mother supported her six children
by helping neighbors care for their cows. (She is 89 now.) On the wall of
his office is an old black-and-white photograph of Dr. Hwang as a boy
with cows.

"I could communicate to cows eye to eye," Dr. Hwang, the father of two
sons, said. "I want my laboratory to communicate with cells heart to
heart."

Of the human material cultivated with the new genetic codes, he said: "If
there are no humans beside the incubators, they may feel very lonely. So
I discussed with my members. We decided that someone has to be beside the
incubators and talking to the cells."

In the laboratory, the technician peered intently into her
micromanipulator, racing against time to insert one round skin cell into
each of seven human eggs that the laboratory had received that day from a
fertility clinic. Stripped of their genetic protein, eggs die after two
hours.

Dr. Hwang called the work "holy, pure and genuine in trying to develop
therapeutic technology to cure hard to treat diseases."

He disclaimed any personal financial interest in the research, noting
that the patents would be going to the South Korean government.

"I want to be remembered in history as a pure scientist," he said. "I
want this technology applied to the whole of mankind."

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