He was awarded with the title of ‘Supreme Scientist’ in 2004. He was hailed as a national hero in South Korea, when he published details of what were purported to be the first stem cells made from cloned human embryos.
Yes, we are talking about renowned Scientist Woo Suk Hwang who came into news first when eight years ago he claimed to clone a dairy cow called Yeongrongi. He later gained international stardom by publishing two papers in Science to show that he had cloned a human embryo.
Then in 2005, it was claimed that his results have been fake as his cloning experiment had been conducted using eggs donated by junior staff of his own laboratory. He was found guilty of serious breaching of ethics for which he was dismissed by Seoul National University and indicted for embezzlement of some funding which he had received from Government. His disgrace was viewed as national humiliation.
These days again he is in news after American Scientists published analysis shows that a line of human embryonic stem cells created by professor Hwang, were in fact the first to have been made by asexual reproduction and have significant medical potential.
George Daley, of Children’s Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, based on his new research says that isolation of parthogenetic stem cells is an important achievement though Professor Hwang and his team did this accidentally and lacked tools to test them properly in order to show their origin. He further added that this mistake could lead to more important results in medical field. He showed the possibility of creating bank of stem cells paving a way for the treatment of many genetic diseases.
Professor Hwang may fail to reestablish his lost scientific reputation, may be accidentally, but the credit goes to Professor Hwang for this breakthrough in using a technique that takes its name from the virgin birth.
Image Credit: ABC
Via: Times
