|
Korean Researchers Win U.S. Stem Cell Patent
By Hwang Si-young
The Korea Herald
18 October 2005
A Korean biotechnology research team obtained the patent rights in the United States for a procedure used to harvest human embryonic stem cells using surplus frozen-thawed embryos.
A research team led by Dr. Park Se-pill, director of Maria Biotechonolgy Institute, said yesterday that it obtained a patent right from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last July for making therapeutic embryonic stem cells using surplus frozen blastocyst embryos. (A blastocyst is an embryo that has developed for at least five days before being frozen.)
Dr. Park's team applied for the patent in the United States four years ago. Prior to that, the team has acquired patent rights in 108 different countries since 2001.
There are only two other patents concerning human embryonic stem cell research registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including a Wisconsin University team's early-stage frozen embryo research and Australia-Singapore research team's embryo research. But these two have relatively low success rates in creating stem cells and embryos were often lost in the freeze-and-thaw process, Park's team said.
Another team led by Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk also uses replicated embryos to make stem cells; this technology, however, has not been patented yet.
Park's team uses spare frozen blastocyst embryos which are bound to be abandoned after having been stored for five years. Park developed a technique which generates embryonic stem cells by thawing the leftover frozen blastocyst embryos.
This approach has attracted less ethical debate and is expected to create enormous economic value when it is medically deployed to treat diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and diabetes.
Park said complete and specific technological breakthroughs are included in the patent right, such as the thawing technology, external fertilization system and AHLS.
The success rate to develop embryonic stem cells has been raised to 63 percent, five times higher than the previous level of 10-36 percent, the team reported.
According to U.S. pro-life legislation, extra frozen embryos with in-vitro fertilization couples' approvals can be used for research purposes after the five year storage period.
Thus, U.S. embryologists have continuously called for the use of frozen embryonic cells.
"I'm pleased to have the potential source of stem cells, which is one of the rare cases globally," Park said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Hwang Woo-suk commented on this as "tremendously well done."
The Ministry of Health and Welfare said that it has supported the research team with 830 million won ($790,000) since 2001.
|
