embryonic stem cell colonies from the lab of developmental biologist James Thompson
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Used with permission © University of Wisconsin Board of Regents
Evan Snyder, Director of the Burnham Institute's Stem Cell and Regeneration program
claims of possible fabrication of results in S. Korean stem cell experiments
Recent actions by the University of Pittsburgh's Dr. Gerald Schatten regarding the embryonic stem cell research breakthroughs attributed to South Korean researcher Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk have called into question the ethics of that project and, now, raised the possibility of fabrication of scientific results, although no such allegations have yet been proven.
an exclusive and extensive interview with stem cell scientist Dr. Evan Snyder
California Politics Today and
Etopia Media Medical News Network spoke for an hour this afternoon with
Dr. Evan Snyder, a Professor and Program Director of the Stem Cell Research Program at the
Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California.
You can listen to Dr. Snyder saying that recently-raised issues may have "possibly" re-started the race to be the first to successfully produce customized embryonic stem cells and that this controversy "slows us up" by clicking
here
You can listen to that interview, in part or in its entirety, by clicking
here.
not scientific proof, but evidence consistent with speculation about the inciting incident in this controversy
Forensic scientists on programs like
CSI: Las Vegas usually don't say that a piece of evidence
proves some fact, but that it is
consistent with some hypothetical theory of the case.
Somewhere towards the middle of the hour-long interview linked to above, Dr. Snyder speculates that the series of events now culminating in Dr. Gerald Schatten's request to
Science magazine to retract the article he co-authored with Dr. Hwang had its origins in his coming to know, in some unspecified way, from visiting workers in his lab in Pittsburg who had been previously working with Dr. Hwang in his lab in Seoul, that there had been irregularities in the way human eggs were obtained for research purposes in Dr. Hwang's lab.
In light of that hypothesis, it's interesting to note, that while the report below does not
prove this hypothetical explanation of how Dr. Schatten came to disbelieve what he had been told by Dr. Hwang, which lead to his withdrawal from cooperation with him on the proposed Global Stem Cell Hub, and probably, in some way, his more recent decision to seek the retraction of the article they had co-authored, it is definitely an additional piece of evidence that is
consistent with that hypothesis, and, thus, tends to support that theory.
Here's the evidence in question, from a December 15, 2005, article on the
donga.com web site entitled
"American Scientist’s Inconsistency Raises Questions":
"Hwang’s team stated, “We are very cautious of how we respond to the recent developments because three of our researchers are currently working with Schatten’s team. If we end up severing ties with the American team, we plan to bring back all of our researchers."
an earlier and more basic interview with Dr. Snyder
Stem Cell World #1, published on August 14, 2004, was entitled "Evan Snyder, Director of the Burnham Institute's Stem Cell and Regeneration program, provides an introduction to the world of stem cells." You can access that article, and listen to that previous audio interview with Dr. Snyder now, by clicking
here.
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