A team of researchers led by Hwang Woo-suk from Seoul National University announced in February 2004 that this team had cloned a human embryo for the first time.
Today they announced that they had successfully created 11 lines of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) derived from donated eggs and the somatic (adult) cells of 11 patients with serious medical conditions.
Given that these stem cells are genetically virtually identical to those of the patients from whom the somatic cells were taken, if these stem cells can be coaxed into becoming the types of cells required for the treatment of each patient's condition, a major breakthrough in medical research and treatment will have been achieved.
South Korea and U.K. advance in global hESC competition, while California's efforts are snarled in litigation
At the same time that the South Korean team was announcing its latest breakthrough in hESC research, another team of researchers, this one at Newcastle University in the U.K., became the second group to successfully create a cloned human embryo.
As reported in the
TIMES ONLINE in an article entitled
"Race to find new cures speeds up as Britain clones human embryo,":
"BRITISH scientists have created a cloned human embryo for the first time, placing the country in the vanguard of a technology with the potential to cure conditions such as Parkinson’s, diabetes and paralysis.
"The Newcastle University team has become only the second to achieve the feat, crowning a momentous day that underlines the pace at which the science is moving.
"Their announcement came as the South Korean researchers who pioneered human cloning last year announced breakthroughs that bring its medical promise closer to reality."
Meanwhile, in California, where voters last November approved the sale of $3 billion in state bonds to finance human embryonic stem cell research, the actual sale of these bonds, and the actual funding of the research are now in limbo, awaiting the resolution of a law suit brought by litigants claiming that the handing over of $3 billion in state money to the Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee (ICOC) established by the passage of Proposition 71 to control the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine that would coordinate the stem cell research, violates the California Constitution's provision against providing funds to any organization that is "not under the exclusive management and control of the State as a state institution."
The authors of Proposition 71 specifically intended, and wrote provisions implementing their intentions into this initiative, to establish an organization that would be independent and outside the control of the State of California and its conflict of interest and open government laws.
As reported on the
California Politics Today web site in a May 11, 2005, article entitled
"California cannot sell $3 billion in embryonic stem cell research bonds until a lawsuit challenging its right to do so is resolved," no funding is yet available under the provisions of Proposition 71 for California stem cell researchers.
