Hwang Woo-suk on Trial

Hwang Woo-suk on Trial

The embezzlement trial of Dr. Hwang Woo-suk began yesterday in South Korea. Hwang is accused of misuse of government funds. According to Reuters, he allegedly used money that was supposed to go to research for the illegal purchase of human eggs and for political donations. The embezzlement charges carry a maximum penalty of ten years in prison; separate charges related to the egg purchase have a three year maximum. The International Herald Tribune says that Hwang’s lawyers is continuing to argue that Hwang was deceived by other members of his research team and thought the research was genuine until the problems were discovered. This is an important point for the trial because if he intentionally accepted money on the basis of claims that he knew were false, that is a different situation from accepting it in ignorance of the duplicity. The use of the money would still be in question, of course. He does admit he was not as careful as he should have been in reviewing the others’ work.

I have trouble imagining that he won’t be convicted, but we’ll see.

Rat Paralysis Improved

Rat Paralysis Improved

The story receiving a lot of press right now is that researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have used a combination of embryonic stem cells derived from mice and a chemical “soup” to rewire nerves in paralyzed rats, enabling them to walk again. The researchers emphasize that it is a very complex process and that it is years before this is even a potential in people; at this point, it is a proof of concept but not at all a potential therapy. A Bloomberg story gives some basic scientific detail: the embryonic stem cells were differentiated in culture into motor neurons and then injected into the rats. Motor neurons are the cells that send messages to muscles telling them what to do. Three out of every four animals were able to use their hind legs again after six months. An AP story in the Boston Globe (and other papers) reports that the difference between this work and other work using stem cells is that this essentially grows new motor neurons, rather than trying to heal the damage in the spinal cord. There were several different groups of rats: some received extra neurons treated with substances, some received chemicals to neutralize the rejection of the new neurons by the myelin on surrounding cells, and some received a growth factor that signaled the new neurons where to connect. Only rats that received all of the extra substances had improvement. The scientists will now try to duplicate the results in pigs.

Some other interesting facts from the press release are that the rats had a 50% improvement in hind limb grip strength and that when one group was treated with the growth factor on only one limb, function was improved in that limb. The press release also iterates some of the remaining questions: can this treatment work in a larger animal, where the neurons have further to go? Do human embryonic stem cells behave the same way that mouse embryonic stem cells do?

This procedure is seen as a potential treatment for diseases caused by degeneration of the motor neurons, such as ALS or spinal muscular atrophy. In a paralysis where the motor neurons were intact but were not receiving signals from the spinal cord, it might still be more useful to try to repair the spinal damage directly instead of growing new neurons.

Obviously this is a major scientific advance, and equally obviously nothing is certain yet as relates to people.