Stem cell debate looks beyond scandal

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

ST. LOUIS - In the wake of last year's scandal over faked cloning experiments in South Korea, stem cell researchers are getting over their deep disappointment and moving ahead with discoveries — while ethicists are gearing up for a new wave of social and political debate.

Scientists on both sides of that debate said Friday that it's likely just a matter of time before someone really does produce stem cells from cloned human embryos, thus actually accomplishing what South Korean researcher Woo-suk Hwang falsely claimed two years ago.

"Probably over the next couple of years, this will be done," said Leonard Zon, a stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston. "I think the individual steps are solvable."

The past, present and future of stem cell research was the focus of a St. Louis news briefing on Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — the very same forum where Hwang made such a splash in 2004.

The annual AAAS meeting brings together hundreds of scientists, students and journalists to review the past year's research in virtually every field, and look ahead to future frontiers. Amid international fanfare, Hwang and his team reported at the 2004 meeting that they had created a human embryo through cloning and extracted viable stem cells from it.

Last year, Hwang went even further, reporting that his process was able to produce 11 new lines of patient-specific embryonic stem cells. Both of Hwang's papers appeared in the journal Science, which is published by the AAAS.

Such an advance seemed to revolutionize the search for regenerative therapies, because embryonic stem cells are capable of transforming themselves into virtually any tissue in the body. Theoretically, harnessing stem cell therapy in that way could lead to the regeneration of injured spinal cords, new heart cells for cardiac patients or new brain cells for Parkinson's disease sufferers.

But other researchers were never able to duplicate Hwang's results. Last fall, his claims crumbled under the weight of fraud allegations. Hwang became the focus of academic and even criminal investigations, and the journal Science retracted Hwang's research.

Mass apology?
Some of the speakers at Friday's forum still felt stung by the affair — not only because they were misled, but because it turned out that Hwang's female subordinates were pressured to donate their own eggs. Northwestern University bioethicist Laurie Zoloth said anyone who played even an inadvertent role in Hwang's deception, including herself as well as the research community and even science journalists, should join in a mass apology.

Donald Kennedy, Science's editor-in-chief, was sympathetic: "This is really a twin tragedy —both for the people who were misled over there [in South Korea] and for the people who were misled here. ... I'll certainly join in any ritual apology."

Science launched two investigations of the practices that led to the publication of the fraudulent papers. Kennedy told MSNBC.com that both probes — one by five of the journal's editors, the other by an independent panel — should be ready for review by the AAAS board in mid- to late April. (AAAS is a content provider for MSNBC.com.)

Kennedy said he is often asked whether he could see anything in retrospect that Science could have done to detect the fraud before publication. "I cannot, but my colleagues may," he said.

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