Australian experts disappointed by Hwang findings

Australian stem cell research experts have spoken out, in a series of statements, of their disappointment in the wake of findings by an independent review panel that a team led by South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk fabricated research on potentially groundbreaking papers on embryonic stem cells.

Prof Alan Trounson of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, and scientific director of Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, said he was "very disappointed" that the reports on producing genuine embryonic stem cells from nuclear transfer embryos seemed to be total fabrication.

"They may have got part of the way there but they clearly didn't get the distance that they claim in their publications," Trounson said. "I'm very disappointed, too, that scientists would make up these claims and I don't think it reflects well on anyone in science. Normally we wait for another independent laboratory to confirm such results but this never really happened in this case.

"We will now have to ignore all of that data and refocus on trying to make embryonic stem cells by nuclear transfer. I wouldn't say we couldn't do it because there are a number of laboratories that have made embryos from nuclear transfer so I suspect we can do it but were just going to have to wait and find out."

Dr Megan Munsie, scientific development manager at Stem Cell Sciences, was the first person to show that an embryo can be cloned and embryonic stem cells can be produced from it.

"I was encouraged when the 2004 work came out that showed that the Koreans had been able to make stem cell lines from an adult cell which replicated what I and others had been able to achieve in an animal model," she said. "This was the first step of realising the potential of the technology -- somatic cell nuclear transfer, known as therapeutic cloning.

"The 2005 paper [in Science] was exciting because it showed [the Koreans] had made stem cell lines from specific patients. This was a real breakthrough because for the first time it opened the door to using these stem cell lines to better understand disease. The other exciting aspect was that the number of eggs required was greatly reduced making the technology more practical.

"I'm disappointed there's no proof these lines existed, but a number of groups around the world are doing this work and it is only a matter of time before stem cell lines derived from cloned embryos are produced."

However, Munsie said, it would be important that such work be done ethically and in a highly regulated environment, as proposed by the recent Lockhart Review into Australian stem cell research legislation.

Dr Hugh Niall, CEO of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, was scheduled to appear on a panel with Hwang at the AusBiotech 2005 conference late last year. He withdrew from the panel when allegations of impropriety against Hwang first surfaced.

"I'm very disappointed that the [researchers'] claims have turned out to be fraudulent," Niall said. "It is a very rare event at this level of attention where a whole team is involved, not just one person."

However, Niall agreed with Munsie that the Korean team's findings were bound to be discovered sooner or later. Because the review panel had acted quickly in discovering the fabrications, Niall said, other scientists would now be able to get on with the work.

"Other labs will intensify their efforts, and ironically [the review panel's findings] will act as a stimulus to this kind of research, rather than discourage it, as scientists realise that the prize is still there to be won," he said.

Prof Bernie Tuch, director of the Diabetes Transplant Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital, and professor of medicine at the University of NSW, said techniques using nuclear transfer to create embryonic stem cell lines worked in animals, including Dolly the sheep and Snuppy the dog, and it was reasonable to expect that they would also work with human tissue.

"The current outcome from Korea highlights the continuing need for appropriate checks and balances in all areas of scientific research, especially very sensitive ones such as therapeutic cloning," Tuch said. Dr Elizabeth Finkel, author of the recent book Stem cells. Controversy at the frontiers of science, said the scientific world had been holding its breath awaiting the Korean review panel's verdict.

"In fact, no one has achieved the dual feat of both cloning a human embryo and deriving stem cells from it, though Hwang dazzled the world for 20 months with a success he attributed to ample funding, academic freedom, and not least Korean dexterity, honed by the use of chopsticks," Finkel said. "In retrospect this makes sense. Both techniques are extremely difficult. It took 17 years just to learn to make human embryonic stem cells from an embryo. This takes the scientific world back to where it was 20 months ago."