Hwang Resigns From Stem Cell Hub

Hwang Resigns From Stem Cell Hub

Well, I said I wasn’t going to blog any more today but this is worth it…
Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk is resigning from the World Stem Cell Hub that he was instrumental in founding after admitting that some of the ova he received in his human cloning research came from members of his research team. He is resigning from all other official posts he holds as well.

The story is covered by Forbes, by the Chinese newspaper Xinhua, by the San Jose Mercury News (an AP wire story), by ABC News (Reuters story), and by Bloomberg, among others. Hwang apologized for the scandal. He did not know the eggs had been donated by women on his research team until after the fact.

I’m glad he stepped down, but I hope that people can see past his personal shortcomings and not let them taint the research he has done. From a purely biological standpoint (if such a thing exists), the results are unchanged. I also hope that this generates meaningful and useful discussion about egg donation instead of shutting it down.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I'm taking the rest of today (there are several posts below) and all of tomorrow off for Thanksgiving, I will be back on Friday. Also, next week I'm at a conference for a couple days on Tuesday and Wednesday, so blogging probably won't happen then. I'll catch things up later.


(Image is mine)

Koreans Support Hwang

Koreans Support Hwang

The Korea Herald reported that Hwang Woo-Suk is still receiving strong support from Koreans and that an increasing number of women are offering to donate eggs. In a poll taken by a Korean website, more than 70% of the people said that paying for eggs was not unethical. (I’d like to know what the question was and how respondents were selected.) Civic groups are still urging caution, and don’t want Korea to become isolated from the global scientific community. The Korea Times, in keeping with this thinking, yesterday published an editorial saying, “If he committed ethical wrongdoings in securing eggs, Hwang ought to confess even at the cost of further damaging his reputation and causing setbacks to his research.”

In a related story, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that an agreement between Australian and Korean biotechnology scientists was signed in spite of the scandal. The report has a number of quotations from various scientists about stem cell research and therapeutic cloning.

Bone Cancer May Be Caused by Stem Cells

Bone Cancer May Be Caused by Stem Cells

In a study suggesting that some forms of cancer are caused by stem cells gone awry, researchers at the University of Florida have identified “ a population of cells with characteristics of adult and embryonic stem cells in cultures derived from biopsies of patients' bone tumors.” A press release of the study is on EurekAlert.

In one form of bone cancer, osteosarcoma, radical surgery and chemotherapy together still only effected a cure rate of 65%. (Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer in children between the ages of 10 and 20.) The researchers decided to look at why the cancer was so aggressive, so they looked for stem cells in the tumors. One theory of stem cells’ role in cancer, based on prior studies which have shown possible connections, is that the stem cells stimulate the growth of the tumor, so they must be eradicated or the tumors will recur. Conventional chemotherapy is targeted at the growing cancer cells and may not affect the stem cells.

A researcher not involved in the study said, “Further work needs to be done to determine what the role of cells of this nature is in cancer biology - whether they are the cells of origin, the cause of cancer or the effect of the environment generated by a tumor.” There’s more and more scientific research showing a link between stem cells and cancer, and work needs to go forward.

Adult Stem Cells Act as “Supervisors”

Adult Stem Cells Act as “Supervisors”

A new study from the University of Virginia says that adult stem cells in hearts direct other cells to repair tissue damage, rather than doing the work themselves. According to the press release, the research team leader said, “It’s a shift from a building role to a signaling role, orchestrating the repair and growth of damaged tissue.” He suggested that drugs might have to take a different approach and harness the body’s own methods of repair instead of trying to isolate one single factor.

This seems to raise again one of the questions about how stem cells work in healing; it has been suggested that some of their effectiveness may come about from releasing chemicals that help stimulate the growth of other cells or that have an anti-inflammatory effect, which clears the way for the body to more effectively heal with non stem cells. Obviously this is a complicated mechanism and we have a lot more to learn.

Stem Cell Books

Stem Cell Books

Stem Cell Now: From the Experiment that Shook the World to the New Politics of Life
By Christopher Scott
Published by Pi Press
ISBN: 0131737988; Published: Nov 8, 2005; Copyright 2006; Dimensions 6x9 ; Pages: 256; Edition: 1st.

This reports on the history of stem cells from when Jamie Thompson first developed a human embryonic stem cell and discusses stem cell research, politics, and technology. I haven’t read it yet, but I wanted to pass it along to readers who might want to get a copy right away.

Also, the Korea Times reported last week on a book in Korean called Discussion, which “is a record of conversations between two veteran scholars from different backgrounds, one from humanities and the other from biology, as they seek answers in this technocratic, but ethically anemic, society.” I hope it will be translated at some time soon, it sounds interesting.