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Hankooki.com > The Korea Times > Technology Patient-Specific Stem Cells Likely in Six Months By Kim Tae-gyu Staff Reporter An illustrious South Korean scientist projects his team will be able to extract patient-specific stem cells as soon as research with human embryos is allowed in the country. The scientist is not Hwang Woo-suk, who falsely claimed to have created patient-specific stem cells last year, but Prof. Park Se-pill at Cheju National University. ``Technologically speaking, we will be capable of deriving stem cell lines from cloned human embryos in about half a year,'' said Park, who harvested stem cells from human embryos in 2000 for the third time in history. ``We have the goal of launching studies on cloned embryonic stem cells and our new lab will have a team for that purpose,'' said Park, who will open a stem cell research center in Seoul this week. Patient-specific stem cells are the Holy Grail for embryologists, who believe they will help heal incurable diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's without causing negative immune responses. The reason: the patient-specific stem cell batches come from cells of patients themselves. Subsequently, therapy with them is just like transplanting the healthy skin of a burn patient to his or her damaged tissue. In this regard, patient-specific stem cells are sometimes called tailor-made cells _ the country's discredited veterinarian Hwang said his team cloned 11 such cell lines last year. However, Hwang's work proved to be a hoax and research with cloned human embryos has been practically prohibited because of ethical controversies and strengthened guidelines from the government. ``Our new bio center in Seoul, dubbed the Mirae Biotech Research Institute, will start with adult stem cells and frozen embryos rather than cloned embryos. In fact, cloning human cells is not our immediate target,'' the 46-year-old Park said. ``But we will prepare to embark on studies on cloned embryos by carrying out experiments with animal cloning,'' said Park, who cloned a cow in 2001. Park said animal cloning has many technologies in common with cloning human embryos although extracting stem cells from them is a different technique. The Mirae Biotech Research Institute will open tomorrow at Seoul-based Konkuk University, and eight researchers and five professors from Cheju National University, including Park, will participate in its work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn