The source of this article is the Houston Chronicle: http://tinyurl.com/7a35b

June 11, 2005, 1:04AM

A
By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Hwang Woo-Suk
Science's hottest figure comes to Houston today, three weeks after his 
headline-making achievement re framed the debate over one of the world's 
most controversial issues.


South Korean researcher Woo Suk Hwang will tell a gathering of scientists 
and other advocates of stem-cell research at Baylor College of Medicine how 
he made nearly a dozen cloned human embryos that are genetic twins of 
diseased patients.

The achievement brings scientists closer to what many say is the future of 
medicine, where doctors treat heart patients with customized heart tissue, 
diabetics with insulin-producing pancreatic tissue and a host of other 
diseases with genetically tailored spare parts.

Detractors say it also brings society closer to that slippery slope where 
human life is created to harvest spare parts and where some rogue doctor 
one day might even clone a human baby.

In any event, Hwang's breakthrough made one thing clearer: Stem-cell 
science isn't just about deriving utilitarian benefit from leftover embryos 
discarded by fertility clinics. It's also about creating new embryos whose 
stem cells have even greater medical potential, known as therapeutic cloning.

"It's fair to say that Hwang's breakthrough should change the discussion 
considerably," said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan. 
"People on both sides haven't always been honest and forthright about the 
distinction between the two types of stem cells and the issues they raise. 
This may change that."


Delicate timing
The Houston summit comes at a particularly delicate time in the debate.

RESOURCES
WHERE CLONES COME FROM

A cloned embryo is made from a single cell — typically a skin cell — which 
is then fused to an egg from a donor. In the breakthrough work of a South 
Korean researcher, women underwent a month-long series of hormone shots 
followed by the extraction of about a dozen ripened eggs.

One bill in Congress calls for expanded federal funding on "spare" embryos 
and another would ban cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill to loosen the restrictions 
he imposed and recently added that "I worry about a world in which cloning 
would be acceptable."

In Texas, where pro- and anti-stem cell science bills died in the last 
legislative session, Gov. Rick Perry said it was "fine with me" if another 
state takes the lead role in such research.

Indeed, the summit at Baylor is not so much a science conference as a 
chance to plot strategy to advance the stem-cell movement's agenda. With 
the exception of Hwang's session and one other, the themes concern public 
perception and effective advocacy.

"This is the launch of the pro-cures movement," said Bernard Siegel, 
executive director of the Florida-based Genetics Policy Institute, sponsor 
of the meeting. "For the first time, we're bringing in all the stakeholders 
— scientists and business and patient group leaders — to discuss how best 
to remove the bottlenecks that stand in the way of stem-cell research. The 
stakes are too high to continue sitting back."

Siegel said they chose Baylor because Texas is one of several states 
debating limits on stem cell research but also for symbolic reasons — 
because Baylor was one of the first places to pioneer organ transplants.

Famed heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey will kick off the conference this 
morning with remarks on the new field's potential.

The star is clearly Hwang, now such a folk hero in South Korea that an 
entourage of media follows him wherever he goes. He was scheduled to arrive 
in Houston at 5:40 a.m. today, fresh from speaking in Brazil.

In 2004, Hwang made the first cloned embryo, a huge landmark.

But the process was inefficient, requiring almost 250 human eggs extracted 
from female donors to get just one cloned embryo, and no one else seemed 
able to duplicate it.

On May 20, however, Hwang reported considerable progress. His team needed 
only 17 eggs on average to make each batch of stem cells, undercutting 
criticism that the research will require too many donated eggs to be practical.

They also created stem-cell lines from patients with juvenile diabetes and 
an inherited blood disorder, suggesting scientists one day will be able to 
produce customized tissue unlikely to be rejected by a patient's immune system.


Not great to some

"That's the greatness of Dr. Hwang's discovery," said Gerald Schatten, a 
reproductive scientist with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 
and the only U.S. member of Hwang's team. "Imagine what we'll be able to 
find in the embryonic cell lines of people with diseases we have little 
understanding of, such as autism."

It is not of great importance to opponents like Richard Doerflinger, 
director of anti-abortion activities for the United States Conference of 
Catholic Bishops, who notes that for all the attention accorded stem-cell 
research, the science is still decades from treatment.

Hwang is making plans to open a world stem cell bank in South Korea by the 
end of the year to help speed up the quest to grow patients' own 
replacement tissue.

Hwang will be joined on today's summit panel by Schatten, who helped 
interpret study data and did the writing for publication in an 
English-language journal. On Sunday, Baylor scientist William Brinkley will 
wrap up the meeting.

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