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HAYWARD — California's $3 billion, voter-approved stem cell institute went on trial Monday as opponents sought to invalidate the program on grounds that it operates outside state control. The institute violates conflict of interest rules governing state agencies and its officials are not acting in the best interest of taxpayers, attorneys representing taxpayer groups said in opening statements in Alameda County Superior Court. "This agency as it is currently created is not responsive to the people," said David Llewellyn, attorney for the California Family Bioethics Council, one of the groups bringing the suit. Voters in November 2004 approved Proposition 71,...

SAN FRANCISCO - The future of embryonic stem cell research could be shaped in a suburban courtroom where two taxpayer groups are challenging the legality of California's new agency dedicated to the controversial field. Opening statements were scheduled for Monday in a pair of lawsuits seeking to invalidate the law that created the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, which is authorized to hand out $3 billion in research grants. The lawsuits allege — among other things — that it violates a state constitutional mandate that the spending of taxpayer dollars be under state control. "The act delegates the disbursal of...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk was questioned Friday by South Korean government authorities for the first time since the scandal erupted over his falsified stem cell research. The Board of Audit and Inspection questioned Hwang about his possible misappropriation of state funds, spokesman Park Jin-kyu said. Hwang received $42.2 million in government funds for his research as well as $4.35 million from private foundations, according to the board. Hwang already has been questioned by a Seoul National University panel, which has accused the professor of veterinarian medicine of fabricating results published in landmark 2004 and 2005...

California's Proposition 71 program was intended to create a $3 billion West Coast counterpart to the National Institutes of Health empowered to go where the NIH could not: full steam into the new field of biomedical research centered on human embryonic stem cells. Instead, the program has gotten stuck in a seemingly endless legal morass. Although state officials say they are optimistic about their chances in court, it's expected that the program will take at least 15 more months to slog through appeals and start issuing the first major grants. Meanwhile, revelations of faked cloning research in South Korea have...

Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk defended himself insisting he has the technology to produce patient-specific stem cells and that he had been the victim of a "long-planned" conspiracy. An investigation panel at Seoul National University has concluded Hwang did not produce any embryonic stem cells individually tailored to patients as claimed in a paper published in the journal Science last year. Hwang stood by his work in an interview with a local Buddhist newspaper Saturday. "I definitely have the source technology to produce tailored embryonic stem cells," Hwang was quoted as saying in Beopbo. "I can replicate the process any time."...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The stunning fall of South Korea's stem cell hero Hwang Woo-Suk set the stage for a ferocious new battle in the highly politicised debate over cloning in the United States. Hwang's disgrace shocked stem cell research advocates and the anti-cloning lobby alike, and some observers say his tailspin could at least slow the race for breakthroughs in the lucrative bio-technology industry. Investigators at Seoul National University said Thursday there was no evidence to prove Hwang's claim to have cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them that genetically match patients. His supposed breakthrough was so important...

SEOUL, South Korea - An already disgraced scientist lied about all of the stem cell lines he claimed were matched to different patients through cloning, investigating researchers said in a new jolt to the shattered reputation of Hwang Woo-suk. Thursday's announcement all but ends the fraud investigation into one of three major cloning breakthroughs claimed by the one-time scientific superstar and national hero. Probes of Hwang's two other groundbreaking experiments are still under way at Seoul National University where he worked before resigning in disgrace last week. The latest news was one more disappointment to the scientific world, which had...

The unwelcome but indisputable revelation that some of the most exciting biomedical claims of the past few years were the product of scientific fraud settled like a cloud over the American scientific community yesterday. Stem cell researchers said they were depressed and discouraged to learn that an investigatory panel at Seoul National University had found that most of the precious human embryonic stem cell colonies that its scientists had touted were fakes. The star scientist at the heart of that deception -- Hwang Woo Suk -- resigned yesterday from his university post, his meteoric rise to fame coming to a...

As a South Korean scientist defends against mounting accusations that he falsified evidence in a breakthrough stem cell study, researchers in California said the controversy has caused significant damage to a promising and fledgling field. Doubts about Hwang Woo-suk's claims that he cloned human cells to create embryonic stem cells have made scientists wonder whether the prospect might remain elusive for years. Researchers and doctors hope to use this process to genetically tailor stem cells for patients suffering from such diseases as Parkinson's, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. "It's a black eye on the whole world of science," Richard Murphy, president...

NEW YORK - New allegations of fraud in stem-cell research by a prominent South Korean researcher emerged Thursday, and scientists said his other high-profile claims could face investigation as well. Among them: the first cloned human embryos and the first cloned dog. The reputation of Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University has been battered by allegations of fabrication in a blockbuster paper published in May. He and co-authors claimed that by cloning human embryos, they'd created 11 stem cell lines that genetically matched certain patients. Scientists hope to use such "therapeutic cloning" someday to create tissue for transplant into people...

Now comes word that the famed South Korean stem-cell researcher Hwang Wu-suk, who attracted so much attention earlier this year, faked his results. His close collaborator Roh Sung-Il says that the stem cells that Hwang claims to have cloned probably do not exist. He also said that leading authors of the paper have notified the journal Science that they were withdrawing the paper. Science said it had not yet heard from Hwang. Professor Hwang's work, originally published by Science in June, was hailed as a breakthrough -- a "tremendous advance," according to Stanford University Nobelist Paul Berg. It was also...

Mark Twain said it best when he commented: "There are lies, damn lies and ballot initiatives." --snip-- One of these deceptions involves Proposition 71, the measure that created California's $3 billion stem cell research agency in 2004. In marketing this initiative, proponents said the state would receive not only miracle cures and reduced medical costs, but also up to $1.1 billion in royalties from new stem cell innovations. Now we are learning that this promise, at best, was misleading. At worst, it was a cynical ruse. As was entirely predictable, biotech leaders and many university leaders - key supporters of...

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite promises that California taxpayers could reap up to a billion dollars in royalties by supporting a state-funded stem cell research program, it is now unclear whether the public will reap any financial reward from the initiative passed overwhelmingly by voters a year ago under Proposition 71. What's more, taxpayers could end up paying more than the expected $3 billion in bonds over the next 10 years to fund stem cell research because of restrictions on the types of bonds that can be issued, experts and stake holders told lawmakers at a hearing Monday. State Sen. Deborah...

The billion dollars in royalties that voters were told could flow to the state if they passed California's $3 billion stem cell research funding initiative in 2004 may turn into an empty promise. Researchers and business groups are raising a host of reasons the state should claim no portion of the revenue from inventions produced under the stem cell program created by Proposition 71. For one thing, they say, requiring that the state get a share would hinder work toward disease cures by removing some of the incentive for private investors. But perhaps their strongest argument is that the state...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have added an audit requirement and egg-donor protections to the California stem cell program created by Proposition 71 in November's election. The measure, SB18, was sponsored by Sens. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, and George Runner, R-Lancaster (Los Angeles County). It was approved 28-0 in the Senate and 72-2 in the Assembly. In a veto message, the governor said he supported the main provisions of the bill but found it to be "in direct conflict" with a provision in Prop. 71 barring amendments until 2008. The measure drew most attention for proposed rules...

Paraplegic breakthrough using adult stem cells Apparent major breakthrough with patient paralyzed 19 years Posted: September 28, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com In an apparent major breakthrough, scientists in Korea report using umbilical cord blood stem cells to restore feeling and mobility to a spinal-cord injury patient. The research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cythotherapy, centered on a woman who had been a paraplegic 19 years due to an accident. After an infusion of umbilical cord blood stem cells, stunning results were recorded: "The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after...

Elementary schools start with the fundamentals, the building blocks, the three R's: reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. The California Comeback starts with its fundamentals, its building blocks, too. They are a different three R's: recovery, reform, rebuild. When I took office 22 months ago, I had no illusions about how difficult the job would be, no illusions about what it would take to turn around a state $22 billion in debt. But in that time, we have accomplished the first R - recovery. We saved the state from bankruptcy, increasing state revenues $6 billion without raising taxes. We rolled back the...

The biggest question surrounding stem cell research in California right now isn’t whether it will eventually cure devastating health problems. It’s what happened to the billion dollars. When California voters approved Proposition 71 last year, critics say, it was partially on the promise that their $3 billion investment in stem cell research would provide a financial payoff to the state. Supporters cited a study that claimed California could get a payback of anywhere between $537 million and $1.1 billion from royalties and licensing from intellectual property, or IP, as it is known in the investment community. Actually, the figures were...

Expectations of huge financial and medical returns on California's $3 billion investment in stem cell research are unrealistic and based on overblown analysis, according to a study by a panel of research, business and academic professionals. The biggest benefit Californians can expect to reap from their investment – improved quality of life for people living with devastating diseases – is at least 20 years away, the report said. In the meantime, the state should quickly make basic scientific discoveries and tools made with the taxpayers' investment available to the broad scientific community to further stem cell research, the report said....

Funding stem-cell research without Uncle SamIn August 2001, President George Bush limited federal spending on human embryonic stem-cell research to stem-cell lines derived before that date. President Bush said that he was restricting federal support for research to those lines because he did not want to "encourage further destruction of human embryos that have at least the potential for life." So far only 22 stem-cell lines qualify for federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research, and the National Institutes of Health provided only $24.3 million last year for such research. It's impossible to tell what the level of federal funding...