|
South Korean Professor Said Gathering Stem Cell "Dream Team"
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
25 May 2005
Text of report in English by South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo website on 23 May
Prof Hwang Woo-suk's successes in embryonic stem cell research are changing the face of the field, and international experts are queuing up to work with him. Hwang has announced he hopes to put together an international "dream team" to streamline research into what could be our best hope to cure incurable diseases.
Hwang's team is to be picked from top research centres in different areas such as stem cell safety, animal testing and clinical trials needed to advance the practical use of stem cell research.
To ensure safety, it appears Cambridge University's stem cell genetic analysis specialist Roger Pedersen and Johns Hopkins University's Curt Civin, a specialist in cellular transformations resulting from stem cell transplants, will take part in joint research.
For primate testing, which is the stage before clinical testing on humans, Hwang has joined forces with the University of Pittsburgh's Pro. Gerald P. Schatten, who co-wrote Dr Hwang's groundbreaking article for Science that made headlines last week. Two researchers with Hwang's team, including Dr Park Jong-won, were sent to Pittsburgh last year.
Spinal cord injuries and nervous disorders like Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's disease and diabetes are expected to be among the first diseases where stem cell treatment will be tried, because with these disorders there is hope of a complete cure if only one group of cells, be it nerve cells or insulin secretion cells, can be replaced.
For clinical tests on nervous disorders, Hwang's team has entered into an agreement with the Dr Ian Wilmut of the UK's Roslin Institute, who cloned Dolly the sheep. If Hwang is able to create embryonic stem cell from patients of Lou Gehrig's Disease, Wilmut would take the cells and research patient transplants. Nerve cell specialist Lorenz Studer of New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre would be expected to head research with Alzheimer's disease.
For diabetes research, Harvard University Medical School's Dr Douglas Melton appears to be a strong candidate. Melton's team has the most surplus embryonic stem cells in the US, and is conducting research on juvenile diabetes. Both of Melton's children are afflicted with juvenile diabetes, so he is particularly keen on joint research.
"From now on, with basic stem cell research completed, the time until such research can be used practically will depend on how and with whom it is conducted," Hwang said. "We plan to include as many domestic research teams as possible."
Source: Choson Ilbo website, Seoul, in English 23 May 05
|
