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S. Korea Stem Cell Pioneer Resigns Posts Over Human Donor Furor
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Hwang Woo Suk, a South Korean researcher credited with making the first embryonic stem cells genetically matched to living adults, resigned all his official positions after admitting that he'd used eggs from paid donors and women in his research team.

Hwang, a researcher at Seoul National University, said he found out two assistants had donated eggs for his groundbreaking project late last year and didn't disclose the information. Hwang also said the head of a hospital who supplied eggs for the project told him last month that some donors had been paid.

``After serious consideration, I finally chose to protect my researcher's privacy,'' Hwang told a press conference at the university. ``I could have been wiser.''

Hwang's admission may hamper global collaboration based on his research, which has been heralded as a critical step in jump-starting treatment for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. A U.S. scientist ended his collaboration with Hwang last week over claims that human eggs used to grow cells were unethically obtained.

``I sincerely apologize for having stirred concern and home and abroad,'' Hwang said. The researcher said he'd step down as head of the World Stem Cell Hub and all other official organizations to focus on his research.

Payment

The announcement comes two days after the head of a Seoul hospital said he paid about 1.5 million won ($1,443) to women who donated eggs for Hwang's research.

Health ministry spokesman Choi Hee Joo earlier said Hwang didn't know the staff on his team had donated the eggs and didn't break breach ethical guidelines.

Hwang found out that the researchers had donated their eggs after they gave an interview in the journal Nature last year, Choi said.

The ministry said no laws or ethical guidelines had been broken because there was no commercial interest. The government is preparing some measures including setting up a public institution to collect donated eggs, it said.

Roh Sung Il, an administrator at MizMedi Hospital in Seoul, said Nov. 21 he paid some donors of human eggs as compensation out of his own pocket and didn't break any laws.

Donors

Gerald Schatten, a University of Pittsburgh stem cell scientist, on Nov. 12 said he will scrap a 20-month collaboration after learning that claims that Hwang paid a lab worker to donate egg cells might be true.

Roh said he paid for the eggs from late 2002 because there weren't enough volunteers. Once Hwang's work was publicized, the hospital was able to attract enough donors, he said.

Hwang reported in May that he had developed a technique for making large batches of embryonic stem cells that could be matched to patients by using DNA taken from an individual's skin cell. Hwang put genes from the skin cell into a donor egg cell to create embryos from which stem cells can be extracted, a process known as therapeutic cloning.

Scientists and drug developers around the world hailed Hwang's work as a critical step toward an era of medicine in which fresh new tissues, genetically matched to patients, would be grown to replace dying cells in the brain and other organs.

On Oct. 19 Schatten and scientists in the U.S., U.K. and other nations joined Hwang in Seoul to announce the formation of a stem cell bank to supply labs around the world with cloned embryonic stem cells.