Posted on 01/11/2006 11:50:21 PM PST by neverdem
SEOUL, Wednesday, Jan. 11 - The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday.
In a strategy envied by other developing countries, South Korea has become the world's 11th-largest economy by focusing national support on target industries and producing quick results. It is a recipe that enabled the country to challenge Japanese supremacy in semiconductors and shipbuilding.
In the past three years, with Dr. Hwang blazing the way, South Korea has tried the same trick with biotechnology.
That endeavor flopped spectacularly on Tuesday when a panel at Seoul National University announced that Dr. Hwang had completely falsified evidence for papers that had appeared to propel South Korea into global leadership in stem cell research. In his discredited articles, Dr. Hwang claimed to have mastered the technology for cloning human stem cells, a breakthrough toward healing patients with their own regenerated tissue.
"For the Korean government, Hwang was sort of the shortcut for biotech revolution," said Prof. Herbert Gottweis at the University of Vienna, who is studying global regulations on stem cell research. "There was this desire to move ahead rapidly, and Hwang was supposed to be the person to pull this cart."
The South Korean government built a regulatory model on this shaky foundation, he said.
The scandal is having wide repercussions. Park Ky Young, a co-author of one of Dr. Hwang's landmark papers, offered Tuesday to resign as President Roh Moo Hyun's secretary for scientific affairs, a week after the replacement of the science minister, Oh Myung.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
anatomy of fraud
At least it was the South Koreans themselves who busted it. There seems to be a hope.
Amen!
Yale Study Explains Complex Infection Fighting Mechanism
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