S. Korea to Revive Stem Cell Research, Scandal Apart

President Lee Myung-Bak promised Monday to spend some $89 million restoring South Korea's reputation as a leader in stem cell research, five years after a scandal tarnished its reputation.

"The government has decided to foster the stem cell industry as a core new growth engine," he said in a radio address, adding about 100 billion won ($89 million) in state funds would be spent on research next year.

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Lee said South Korea along with the United States was a world leader in the field a decade ago.

"Unfortunately, there was a disappointing incident which caused inevitable damage to the entire stem cell research community in Korea," he said, referring to cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk, who was found in 2006 to have faked part of his work.

As Seoul's efforts faltered, other nations streamlined regulations and aggressively expanded investment in research, Lee said.

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"We must restore our national fame as a stem cell powerhouse," he said, adding the government would ease regulations and set up a state stem cell bank.

Stem cells are master cells that can grow into any bodily tissue. Scientists hope the technology could one day provide cures for such hard-to-treat diseases as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

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Hwang shot to fame in 2004 when he published a paper in the US journal Science claiming to have created the world's first stem cell line from a cloned human embryo.

In a follow-up paper in 2005 in the same journal, he maintained that his team had developed 11 patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines.

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But in January 2006 investigators ruled that his findings were faked and said he had produced no stem cells of any kind.

Source-AFP