Hwang Woo-suk
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| Hwang Woo-Suk | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 15, 1952 Buyeo County, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul: | 황우석 |
| Hanja: | 黃禹錫 |
| Revised Romanization: | Hwang U-seok |
| McCune-Reischauer | Hwang U-sŏk |
Hwang Woo-Suk (born December 15 1952) is a controversial South Korean biomedical scientist and professor of Theriogenology and Biotechnology at Seoul National University, who rose to fame after claiming a series of remarkable breakthroughs in the field of stem cell research which were later proved to have been faked. Until November 2005, he was considered one of the pioneering experts in the field of stem cell research, best known for research work featured in Science magazine in 2005 where he reported to have succeeded in embryonic cell cloning. Unethical conduct and research fabrication that were made public in December 2005 have put Hwang's work under intense scrutiny.
Life
Hwang grew up in a poor mountain town in the central Korean province of South Chungcheong. He worked at a farm to finance his studies when his widowed mother could not earn enough to provide for him and five other siblings. Hwang matriculated at the prestigious Seoul National University after graduating from Daejeon high school. It was later revealed that despite his professors urging that he become a medical doctor, Hwang chose to be a veterinarian. After earning his doctorate, Hwang briefly practiced veterinary medicine, before moving into the field of scientific research. His aim, then, was to create a genetically superior cow. Eventually, he became a full-time researcher at his alma mater, Seoul National University.
Hwang revealed in interviews that he would rise at 4:30 AM after only four hours of sleep and soak in a traditional public bath. Every day, he would turn up at the laboratory at 6 AM and leave at midnight, a daily routine. Hwang would only get to see his wife in bed. He also called her a great cook, though it is not her food that he eats at work. Food dispatch riders habitually deliver food to his laboratory as Hwang and his team would always eat in. As he stated himself, "I work all day long. It is my habit and hobby. I am driven by the quest to find cures for the incurable."
Hwang married in 1979 and has two sons. He was a Roman Catholic, but he converted to Buddhism after he visited Jeondeung Temple in Ganghwa-do, a part of Incheon, in 1987. Hwang stated that he meditates daily for forty minutes. He would also occasionally take time off to visit the temple to pray. Hwang also commented on his reverence towards Buddhist monks: "I would have been a monk if I did not become a scientist. I respect their way of life."
Hwang would view old Hollywood classics on rare occasions. He is a fan of Gone With The Wind and the 17th century Italian physicist Galileo Galilei. Hwang commented on the latter: "Galileo dared to take on the powerful church authorities of the day to prove that the planets orbit the sun. At the risk of losing his life, he was brave enough to make a stand for science."
Timeline
In May 2005, Hwang and his team announced that they had become the first team in the world to successfully clone a human embryo for scientific research. Hwang made further headlines in May of 2005 when he criticized United States President George W. Bush's policy on stem cell research.
Following on the earlier success, on August 3, 2005, Hwang announced that his team of researchers had become the first team to successfully clone a dog. The dog, an Afghan Hound, was named Snuppy.
Shortly after his groundbreaking 2005 work, Hwang was appointed to head the new World Stem Cell Hub, a facility that was to be the world's leading stem cell research centre. However, in November 2005, Gerald Schatten, a University of Pittsburgh researcher who had worked with Hwang for two years, made a surprise announcement that he ceased his collaboration with Hwang. In an interview, Schatten commented that "my decision is grounded solely on concerns regarding oocyte (egg) donations in Dr. Hwang's research reported in 2004." Following an intense media probe, Roh Sung-il, one of Hwang's close collaborators and head of a MizMedi Women's Hospital, held a news conference on November 21.
During the conference Roh admitted that he had paid women a US$1,400 each for donating their eggs, eggs that were later used in Hwang's research.[1] However, Roh claimed Hwang was unaware of this, while the South Korean Ministry of Health assured that no laws or ethical guidelines had been breached as there were no commercial interests involving this pay out. Hwang maintained that he was unaware that these actions were happening during the research and he resigned from his post.
On November 22, "PD Su-cheop" (Producer's Notebook), a popular MBC investigative reporting show, raised the possibility of unethical conduct in the egg cell acquiring process. Despite the factual accuracy of the report, news media as well as people caught up in nationalistic fervor in their unwavering support for Hwang asserted that criticism of Hwang's work was "unpatriotic," so much so that the major companies who were sponsoring the show immediately withdrew their support.
On November 24, Hwang held a press conference in Seoul, in which he declared his intention of resigning from all his official posts.
He also apologized for his actions. In the interview he said, "I was blinded by work and my drive for achievement" — a statement that has striking similarity with the "discovery" of N rays in the beginning of the twentieth century.
He denied coercing his researchers into donating eggs and claimed that he found out about the situation only after it had occurred.
He added that he had lied about the source of the eggs donated to protect the privacy of his female researchers, and that he was not aware of the Declaration of Helsinki, which clearly enumerates his actions as a breach of ethical conduct.
After the press conference, which was aired on all major South Korean television networks, most of the nation's media outlets, government ministries, and the public gave support to Hwang. Sympathy for Hwang outpoured, resulting in an increase in the number of women who wanted to donate their eggs for Hwang's research.
Doctor Hwang's laboratory technique
In the late 1990s, the method that scientists used in cloning was somatic cell nuclear transfer, which is the same procedure that was used to create Dolly the sheep. This laboratory technique begins when an egg is taken from a donor and the nucleus is removed of the egg, creating an enucleated egg. A cell, which contains DNA, is then taken from the person who is being cloned. The enucleated egg is then fused together with the cloning subject's cell using electricity. This creates an embryo, which is implanted into a surrogate mother through in vitro fertilization. If the procedure is successful, then the surrogate mother will give birth to a baby that is a clone of the cloning subject at the end of a normal gestation period. The success rate is only about one or two out of 100 embryos. It took 277 attempts to create Dolly.
Doctor Hwang used this technique at his laboratory in SNU to clone dogs, during his experiments throughout early 2000s. He proved that it was possible to clone mammals and that probability for success can be better than 1 in 277 attempts (as in similar cases such as Dolly).
Hwang's intention to develop better techniques on cloning were focused on stem cells because they are still at an early stage of development, and retain the potential to turn into many different types of cell and when they divide, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialised function.
According to Hwang and many other scientists; it should be possible to harness this ability to turn stem cells into a super "repair kit" for the body. Theoretically to use stem cells to generate healthy tissue to replace that either damaged by trauma, or compromised by disease.
Among the conditions, according to Hwang and his team illnesses which may eventually be treated by stem cell therapy are Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, diabetes, burns and spinal cord damage.
Stem cell lines that Hwang made were created by taking genetic material from the patient and putting it into a donated egg. The resultant cells were a perfect match for the individual and could mean treatments for diseases like diabetes without problems of rejection. Further studies Doctor Hwang made were published in Science magazine in 2000s and hailed as a major advance.[2][3]
Controversies
Until this stage, Hwang was criticized only for unpublicized ethical violations. Colleagues and media outlets asserted that he had paid female donors for egg donations and that he had received donations from two junior researchers, both of which were violations. Later controversies would center around scientific misconduct.
Hwang's integrity as a researcher was again put in doubt when it was revealed that "PD Su-cheop" scheduled a follow-up report questioning his achievement published in Science in June 2005, which stated he had cloned 11 lines of embryonic stem cells. This caused furious backlash in the South Korean people, and the reaction only intensified when it was discovered that Kim Sun-jong, one of Hwang's researchers from MizMedi, was coerced by illegal means to testify against Hwang. As a result, the scheduled broadcast was canceled and the network even made a public apology to the nation, everyone more or less operating under the assumption that the show was at fault and not Hwang. Yet other news outlets began to question Hwang's claims.
However, close scrutiny revealed that several of the photos of purportedly different cells were in fact photos of the same cell. Hwang responded that these additional photos were accidentally included and that there was no such duplication in the original submission to Science. This was later confirmed by the journal, but what happened next would overshadow this event.
Researchers raised questions about striking similarities between the DNA profiles of the cloned cells. Then collaborator Gerald Schatten asked Science to remove his name from the paper, stating as a reason that there were "allegations from someone involved with the experiments that certain elements of the report may be fabricated".
In the midst of national confusion, Hwang disappeared from public sight, to be hospitalized days later for alleged stress-related fatigue, while public opinion gradually began to turn against Hwang with even the major Korean companies who pulled their support from "PD Su-Cheop" reportedly now less than pleased with Hwang. Days later, Hwang started going to his laboratory while requesting Seoul National University to officially conduct a probe to the allegations surrounding him.
The scandal took a dramatic turn on December 15, when Roh Sung-il, who collaborated on that paper, stated to media outlets that nine of those eleven lines had been faked; specifically, DNA tests illustrated that those nine lines shared identical DNA, implying that they had come from the same source. Roh stated that "Professor Hwang admitted to fabrication," and that he, Hwang, and another coauthor had asked Science to withdraw the paper. [4]. Adding fuel to the flame, MBC broadcasted the content of the canceled PD Su-cheop show, which substantiated Roh's claim.
On the same day, ABC news reported that Science had not yet received an official request from Hwang to withdraw the paper, and it had refused to remove Schatten's name from the paper, stating, "No single author, having declared at the time of submission his full and complete confidence in the contents of the paper, can retract his name unilaterally, after publication."
Several prominent scientists, including Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1998, and Bob Lanza, a cloning expert based in Worcester, Massachusetts, have called on Hwang to submit his paper to an outside group for independent analysis—essentially, the same test used to determine parenthood for children of questionable legitimacy. Lanza noted, "You can't fake the results if they're carried out by an independent group. I think this simple test could put the charges to rest." ([5])
Two major press conferences were held on Korean networks on December 16, one with Hwang followed by the other with his former colleague, Roh Sung-il. Hwang started his press conference by claiming that the technology to make stem cells exists, which is not an explicit statement that the stem cell lines he featured in his paper to Science magazine were fakes. He, however, acknowledged the falsifications of research data in the paper, attributing them to unrecoverable "artificial mistakes." He said that there was a problem with the original lines by contamination, and if he is given 10 more days he can re-create the stem cell lines. In addition to this, he made a shocking announcement that he discovered some of the stem cell lines he had been working on has been stolen and replaced with the ones from MizMedi hospital and claimed Kim Sun-jong, a former MizMedi employee once detached to Hwang's lab, is the prime suspect. Hwang said he would ask the Prosecuters' Office to begin an investigation into the matter.
Despite Hwang's claim, in another press conference held only minutes later, Roh Sung-il refuted Hwang's accusation, saying Hwang is blackmailing MizMedi and Kim Sun-jong. He maintained that nine of the eleven stem cell lines were fakes and that Hwang is simply untrustworthy.
Public opinion appears to be that Hwang was dancing around the issue of whether his work was faked or not.
"Roh Sung-il, chairman of the board at Mizmedi Hospital, told KBS television that Hwang had agreed to ask the journal Science to withdraw the paper, published in June to international acclaim. Roh was one of the co-authors of the article that detailed how individual stem cell colonies were created for 11 patients through cloning. Roh also told MBC television that Hwang had pressured a former scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies. In a separate report, a former researcher told MBC that Hwang ordered him to fabricate photos to make it appear there were 11 separate colonies from only three. [...] University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten has already asked that Science remove him as the senior author of the report, citing questions about the paper's accuracy. Seoul National University announced this week it would conduct an internal probe into Hwang's research." [6]
Some scientists have started questioning Hwang's earlier work published in Science in February 2004 in which he claimed to have cloned embryonic stem cells. Maria Biotech head Park Se-pill said, ``Up until now, I have believed Hwang did derive cloned embryonic stem cells although he admitted to misconduct in his follow-up paper on patient-specific stem cells...Now, I am not sure whether the cloned stem cell really existed.’’[7]
Official probe by Seoul National University
An internal panel was formed in Seoul National University to investigate the allegation, and the probe was started on December 17 2005. The panel sealed off Hwang's laboratory and conducted a thorough investigation, collecting testimonies from Hwang, Roh and other people that were involved with the scandal. On December 23, the panel announced its initial finding that Hwang had intentionally fabricated stem cell research results creating nine fake cell lines out of eleven, and added that the validity of two remaining cell lines is yet to be confirmed. The panel stated that Hwang's misconduct is "a grave act damaging the foundation of science." Hwang's claim of having used only 185 eggs to create stem cell lines was also denied by the panel, which indicated that more eggs may have been used in the research process.
Hwang subsequently apologized for "creating a shock and a disappointment" and announced that he is resigning his position as professor at the university. [8] However, Hwang maintained that patient-matched stem cell technology remains in South Korea, and his countrymen shall see it.
Seoul National University said Hwang's resignation request will not be accepted, citing a university regulation which dictates an employee under investigation may not resign from a post. This regulation is effected to prevent premature resignations by investigated employees, thus allowing them to avoid full retributions according to the findings of the investigation (and perhaps avoid involuntary termination), while reaping the benefits of the more honorable and lucrative voluntary resignation.
South Korea's response to controversies
Official response
On December 6 2005 a group of 43 lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties inaugurated a body to support cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk. Members of the group, dubbed the lawmakers’ group supporting Professor Hwang Woo-suk, pledged to help Hwang continue his experiments in pursuit of a scientific breakthrough.
There are many lawmakers who, regardless of party affiliation, want to support Hwang. We will join forces to help Hwang devote himself to his studies, Rep. Kwon Sun-taik of the ruling Uri Party said in a news conference at the National Assembly. Kwon leads the group.
He said the group will seek to establish bioethics guidelines and come up with supporting measures for biotechnology researchers in the country. Among those who have joined the group are Reps. Kim Hyuk-kyu, Kim Young-choon and Kim Sung-gon of the ruling party, Kim Hyong-o of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and Kim Hak-won, chairman of the United Liberal Democrats.
Some female lawmakers are participating in a civic group for voluntary egg donations for therapeutic research, which opened last month following the egg procurement scandal.
Reps. Song Young-sun and Chin Soo-hee of the GNP said they would provide their eggs to Hwang’s research team. Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties called on the Korean Broadcasting Commission to thoroughly investigate the staffers of MBCs PD Notebook which broadcast a documentary program critical of Hwang with coercive tactics in interviews, and reprimand them. [9]
Rallies supporting Hwang
The same day many South Korean citizens rallied outside Doctor Hwang's laboratory; as more than 1,000 women pledged to donate their eggs for the scientist's research. [...] Doctor Hwang has been in seclusion since apologizing in November 2005, for ethical lapses in human egg procurement for his research.The symbolic event was as a gesture from doctor Hwang's supporters that says they intend to donate their eggs with 1,000 of their members after they took egg-donation pledges online via their website. "Dr. Hwang will not be able to return to the lab, at least, until at the end of this week because he is extremely exhausted, mentally and physically," a key team member, Ahn Curie, wrote in an e-mail to Reuters. [...] At Hwang's lab at Seoul National University, women left bouquets of the national flower, a Hibiscus called the Rose of Sharon, for the scientist along with notes of encouragement.
"The only hope for us is Dr. Hwang. Don't trample on our one shred of hope," a woman whose son suffers from a severe kidney ailment told South Korean broadcaster YTN at the university. The women also pledged to sell her eggs to Hwang. [10]
References
- The Straits Times (Singapore), November 26 2005, Page 35.
See also
External links
- Seoul National University
- National Health Institute Stem Cell Information Page
- Korean Air Provides Complimentary Travel for Professor Hwang Woo Suk
- Profile in Slate.com
- Veterinary Prodigy Becomes Cloning Pioneer
- Cloning Pioneers from Korea, UK Eye Partnership for New Research
- Pubmed entry for the controversial paper on embryonic stem cells
- News on egg donor controversy
- SKorea's 'disgraced' national hero
- Discussion of controversy by scientists in an on-line journal club
- News on stem-cell data controversy