Genetics and Health

Stem Cell Researcher Hwang Woo Suk Disgraced

by Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD on December 29th, 2005

The stem cell scandal surrounding Dr. Hwang Woo Suk just seems to get worse.

1. Investigators say that NONE of the 11 cell colonies Hwang supposedly created ever existed.
2. Government officials probably bribed scientists to keep mum.
3. Some of the stem cells that were supposed to have been created to match patients’ DNA were actually ordinary stem cells from embryos at Seoul fertility clinic MizMedi.
4. Hwang claims some of the cell lines were destroyed by fungal contamination.
5. The cloning of an Afghan hound Hwang led is now under investigation.

More than just hopeful patients are feeling the aftershocks of the deception. Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., saw its venture capital dry up when Hwang’s team claimed to have won the customized stem cell cloning race. He said:

Unfortunately, the damage Hwang did can’t be undone. It can’t be undone for us, and it can’t be undone for the thousands of people who may die in the future because this research has been unnecessarily held up while [Hwang] played his games and traveled around the world like a rock star.

Rock star? Probably a more apt description than it appears: drunkenness, debauchery, deception, self-importance,…. How could Hwang have let it get so out of hand? I can understand a few mistakes with the data early on but in the process of replicating experiments, double-checking data, and writing up the paper, he and others should have noticed something was amiss.

What about other scientists? Should they have waited to see if they could create cloned stem cells using Hwang’s method? The scientific community needs to rethink how we approach new evidence. Even if Hwang’s results were for real, a one-hit wonder isn’t enough. We need to be able to produce the same results again and again to make any kind of difference on health and disease.

The Washington Post, December 29, 2005

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POSTED IN: Genetic Engineering