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While California's $3 billion bond sale to finance human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is stalled in the courts, and an attempt in the U.S. Congress (the DeGette-Castle "Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005" to loosen current federal strictures on this research by legalizing and federally-funding the use of "surplus" embryos created in fertility clinics to create hESC are faces a Presidential veto, leading embryonic stem cell/cloning experts on three continents are joining forces to synergize their efforts.

For more about the disconnect between rapidly-advancing science and slow-to-react politicians, click on the title of this Blue Mass. Group blog entry: " Surprise! Clever scientists outpace stupid politicians."

Hwang Woo-Suk is the leader of a South Korean team that yesterday announced its successful creation of 11 new embryonic stem cell lines.

Gerald Schatten is vice chair for research development and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and cell biology and physiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and deputy director for biotechnology development at the university-affiliated Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI).

Ian Wilmut is joint head of the Department of Gene Expression and Development at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. According to his online bio on their site, "his research interests are early mammalian development, embryo manipulation, nuclear transfer and gene targeting in mice, cattle, sheep and pigs." Ian Wilmut supervised the first successful cloning of a mammal, Dolly the sheep.

According to a May 15, 2005 article in the Korea Times entitled "No Stem Cell Research Paper Due: Hwang,"

"Hwang’s team helped Schatten culture cloned monkey embryos to the blastocyst state late last year through a new method of gently squeezing out the egg’s nucleus to enucleate an egg.

"He [Hwang] will meet Scottish embryologist Ian Wilmut, who is famous for having cloned the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly, in order to discuss a possible collaboration on therapeutic stem cell research.

"In early last month, Wilmut flew to Korea to ask Hwang to work with him in finding a cell therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which results in serious muscle atrophy.

"At that time, Hwang said he would decide whether to stage a joint research with Wilmut no later than June after paying a visit to Britain this month."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's post-gazette.com web site reports today, in an article entitled "Stem cell lines cloned--South Korean team reports producing embryonic cells" that:

"His [Hwang's] team got a helping hand from Gerald Schatten, director of the Pittsburgh Development Center at Magee-Womens Research Institute. Schatten assisted with analysis, interpretation and preparation of the data for publication today in the journal Science."

Additional information about the Hwang-Schatten collaboration can be accessed by clicking here.

Drs. Hwang and Schatten will both be presenting at the "Stem Cell Policy and Advocacy Summit: Sustaining the Mandate for Cures" to be held in Houston, June 11-12, 2005

One can only imagine the levels of intellectual and scientific synergy, and the further acceleration of the quest for bio-medical knowledge, that could emerge from the ongoing collaboration on questions of cloning and embryonic stem cell research by this "Big Three" bio-medical research triumvirate.

In an article on the TIMES ONLINE web site, published May 22, 2005, it's reported that Ian Wilmut will be sending skin cells from a Briton suffering from motor neuron disease to Dr. Hwang's lab for cloning and embryonic stem cell derivation, after which the prepared embryonic stem cells will be shipped back to Scotland for further investigation.

"The collaboration brings together two cloning pioneers — Wilmut and Professor Woo-suk Hwang of South Korea, who cloned the first human embryo last year.

"The British experts plan to send cells from the skin of British patients to South Korea where they will be cloned. They will then derive embryonic stem cells — with the potential to form any tissue in the body — from days-old clones. These stem cells will be shipped back to Britain where they will be studied by Shaw and other researchers from Wilmut’s team.

"The eventual aim would be to implant them into a donor patient to regenerate dead cells. Because they would have been created from the same genetic material, they would be less likely to be rejected."

(The patient with motor neuron disease [MND] is a patient of "Professor Christopher Shaw at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London who, along with Professor Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, has linked up with a South Korean cloning team to research a cure for MND.")