Hwang Woo-suk Seeks AIDS Cure from Stem Cells
Related News: Stem Cell ResearchScientists led by Korea's Dr. Hwang Woo-suk are seeking ways to fight Aids using human stem cells, according to Gerald Schatten, a close collaborator of Korea’s cloning pioneer. The team is studying the viability of repairing the body’s immune system by cloning HIV-resistant cells.
Schatten was speaking at the 2005 Seoul Bio-Medi Symposium held at COEX in Seoul on Tuesday. The research is being conducted by a team from Seoul National University led by Hwang and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Researchers envisage making a subject immune to HIV, the virus that causes Aids, by removing the receptors the virus attacks and then cloning the subject’s somatic cells to produce HIV-resistant cells.
Using stem cells, it is theoretically possible to produce huge amounts of HIV-resistant cells, Schatten said.
Other prominent figures at the meet included Ian Wilmut, the creator of the cloned sheep Dolly, Robert Klein, chairman of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Ahn Cu-rie, another collaborator of Hwang’s from Seoul National University’s Medical School.
All praised Korea’s achievements in the field of stem cell research.
Posted on October 18, 2005 06:36 PM