Stem cell research loses footing in Korea

By Kim Tae-gyu

The Park Geun-hye administration gave the green light last week to stem cell studies using human eggs for the first time since its inauguration in early 2013, but the step has seemingly failed to make local scientists happy.

In particular, experts take issue with the decade-long ban on experiments with fresh human ova after the scandal involving former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk.

The National Bioethics Committee allowed CHA Medical Group to use around 600 human eggs by 2020 to establish cloned stem cell lines but they should be either frozen eggs or unhealthy ones.

“Leaders of stem cell research like the United States, Britain and Japan allow the use of fresh human eggs for therapeutic cloning,” said Prof. Park Se-pill at Jeju National University.

“By contrast, we have been prohibited from doing so for the past 10 years after the 2005 scandal and that’s why we are lagging behind. Without doing away with the restrictions, we won’t be able to move forward.”

In 2005, Hwang claimed to have extracted human stem cell batches from patients, which was then hailed as a scientific feat to help cure such degenerative disorders as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

But the work proved to be based on fabricated data and Hwang was found not to have built any patient-specific stem cell lines even after using more than 2,000 fresh eggs some of which were procured in ethically controversial ways.

After the unprecedented scientific scandal, which made Hwang an academic pariah, Korea introduced strict regulations on human stem cell studies and approved just one project in 2009 ― last week’s endorsement marks the second.

While the country practically forbade stem cell research over the past decade, scientists in the U.S. and Japan have made major breakthroughs including the cloning of human embryonic stem cells, the exploit that Hwang fraudulently said to have achieved.

The CHA Medical team hopes to create universal donor stem cells, which can be compatible with anybody. They are a kind of off-the-shelf products made available to any patients in need; but the prospects may not be good.

“In cloning, the status of eggs is crucial. If you have to thaw frozen eggs, I bet you will fail,” Park said. “It is not less than a miracle to make stem cells with frozen eggs, mostly leftovers from artificial insemination. You cannot hatch a chick from a rotten egg.”

Park is a world-renowned embryologist as in 2000 he successfully took out human stem cell lines, not from cloned embryos but from ordinary embryos, for the third time in history.

Another professor at a local university concurred.

“Korea should not be stuck in the past. It is time to look ahead, not behind. I do not understand why the health ministry and the bioethics committee do not change their stances at all,” said the professor who asked not to be named.

“Otherwise, we will lose the opportunity to take the lead in potential-rich cell therapy. I think that stem cell research would be a model case of the so-called creative economy, the catchphrase of the incumbent administration. President Park should take action.”

The science ministry has requested the bioethics committee and the health ministry to lift the long-standing embargo on study with fresh human eggs so that the country will be able to compete with global rivals.

President Park also suggested that research with fresh human ova should be permitted in a May meeting on deregulation this year but the relevant law has yet to be revised.

The creative economy refers to the major goals that President Park vies to achieve over her five-year tenure by underpinning convergence between leading-edge technology and other businesses.

It was a basic economic tenet in her campaign platform and, after she took the power, a dedicated ministry was created in 2013 for the purpose. But criticism has arisen that this attempt has not worked.