줄기세포는 자동차나 반도체칩이 아니다 : 한국에서의 교훈 - 뉴욕타임즈

[heisonthego]

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January 11, 2006

News Analysis

Lesson in South Korea: Stem Cells Aren't Cars or Chips

By CHOE SANG-HUN
International Herald Tribune

SEOUL, Wednesday, Jan. 11 - The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday.

In a strategy envied by other developing countries, South Korea has become the world's 11th-largest economy by focusing national support on target industries and producing quick results. It is a recipe that enabled the country to challenge Japanese supremacy in semiconductors and shipbuilding.

In the past three years, with Dr. Hwang blazing the way, South Korea has tried the same trick with biotechnology.

That endeavor flopped spectacularly on Tuesday when a panel at Seoul National University announced that Dr. Hwang had completely falsified evidence for papers that had appeared to propel South Korea into global leadership in stem cell research. In his discredited articles, Dr. Hwang claimed to have mastered the technology for cloning human stem cells, a breakthrough toward healing patients with their own regenerated tissue.

"For the Korean government, Hwang was sort of the shortcut for biotech revolution," said Prof. Herbert Gottweis at the University of Vienna, who is studying global regulations on stem cell research. "There was this desire to move ahead rapidly, and Hwang was supposed to be the person to pull this cart."

The South Korean government built a regulatory model on this shaky foundation, he said.

The scandal is having wide repercussions. Park Ky Young, a co-author of one of Dr. Hwang's landmark papers, offered Tuesday to resign as President Roh Moo Hyun's secretary for scientific affairs, a week after the replacement of the science minister, Oh Myung.

Prosecutors, who have barred Dr. Hwang and nine colleagues from leaving the country, are preparing fraud charges that could be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

In hindsight, analysts say, it is clear that a hard-driven researcher used - and was used by - a government desperate to generate a vision for a nation whose chronic insecurity among big neighbors was deepening in economic doldrums and a North Korean nuclear crisis.

The story of Dr. Hwang, a handsome 53-year-old veterinarian, fascinated South Koreans. He was more a hard worker than a genius; he claimed to take no days off. He likened his work to "raising the Korean flag on the hill of global science."

He was also a shrewd operator. At his lab, junior staff members revered him. But presiding over the lab's hierarchy, he also collected letters from women on the staff pledging to donate eggs for his experiments, according to the panel's report.

Outside the lab, Dr. Hwang was the nation's most sought-after lecturer. He preached the importance of stem cell research to prosecutors, judges, students and even the presidential staff. When criticized for attending too many social functions, he defended himself as "an evangelist for biotechnology."

He was also an academic wheeler-dealer. Some of his co-authors made no contribution to his papers, except for helping him obtain eggs or lending their names, the investigation panel said.

Dr. Hwang first came to national attention in 1999, when he said he had cloned a cow. But it was after Mr. Roh's inauguration in 2003 that Dr. Hwang gained the status of national hero. South Korea poured funds into his research, designated as a "next-generation motor for economic growth." On the stock market, investors snapped up any share that had "bio" in its name.

"The government is most responsible for creating the Hwang idol," said Jang Sung Ik, chief editor at the South Korean journal Environment and Life. "It gave people an impression that Hwang's technology was a goose that lays golden eggs."

Dr. Hwang published his first major paper on human stem cell cloning in February 2004. But it was early 2005 before the government issued a law regulating the highly sensitive research. A regulatory committee set up under the law filled 7 of its 21 slots with government ministers.

"The bioethics law had little to do with safeguarding bioethics but everything to do with giving Hwang a legal support," said Chin Kyo Hun, a professor emeritus at Seoul National University, who took part in drafting the law.

Dr. Hwang appeared to deliver, though, by publishing splashy papers in prestigious journals like Science and Nature in rapid succession. He said he "opened big gates in stem cell research and only had a few twig doors left."

After President Roh cut the tape for Dr. Hwang's World Stem Cell Hub in October, thousands of patients with spinal cord injuries, diabetes and other ailment applied for treatment.

"What he delivered certainly looked exciting for the political establishment in Korea," said Robert Triendl, a research coordinator at Riken Research Center for Allergy and Immunology in Japan. "So, step by step, they put him into an ever more powerful position, without really understanding what his work was about."

Professor Gottweis, of the University of Vienna, said that as late as November, when he interviewed Seoul officials for his survey of stem cell regulations, they would not discuss bioethics issues but "only wanted to talk about how to support Hwang."

Through Dr. Hwang's fall, South Korea is belatedly learning that biotechnology is not the forum in which to play out its industrial policy ambitions. Unlike electronics or information technology, where the country excelled by building upon technology pioneered by others, biotechnology is a cutting-edge sector teeming with critics. And the field requires a highly sophisticated regulatory system.

"The lesson is that in biotechnology, growth is not everything," said Song Sang Yong, head of the Asian Bioethics Association. "It's an area where countries should take each step cautiously."

[건곤감리]

그냥 닉네임 하나 가지고 올리세요. 뭐하러 닉네임 이것저것 바꿔가면서 수고를 하시나요?

[앗싸^^]

사족이긴 허나 닉네임 바꾸는줄 어떻게 아셔요? 저같은 컴맹은 증말 모르겠던뎅~~;; 테늘 절때 아네여~~

[데몬짱]

전혀 다른 정신세계에 사시는 분인가보네..

[보리건빵]

제발 한글로 된걸 올리실순 없나요?? 혹시 해외에 사시는분이신가?? -_-;;무식한게 죄라면...ㅠㅠ

[n29py]

한국의 조선과 반도체처럼 국가정책으로 집중투자하여 생명공학도 한국이 엄청난 속도로 따라잡는가 했더니 황교수 때문에 그렇게 성공하지 못하게 되었다. 따라서 이 분야를 연구하는 나라들은 서두르지 말고 찬찬히 주의를 기울이며 연구하는게 좋을 듯 하다라는 내용이었습니다.

[n29py]

논문 조작이라고 하니 이제 북치고 장구치고 완전 지네들 세상입니다.

[쪽빠리 사육사]

음 .. 글을 참 잘썼군

[쿠루]

뭐 외국의 입장에서 이런 정도의 분석은 가능하다고 보지만..어쨌든 기분좋은 기사는 아니군요. 아직 논문에 관련된 다른 사람들에 대한 조사도 철저하지 못한 상태인데.. 서울대는 논문이 다 가짜였다고 발표해버렸고 외신들은 날뛰는 한국의 언론을 팩트로 간주해서 기사를 뽑는거겠죠. 갑갑하네요.

[제너스]

밑에서 8번째 줄 부터 심히 공감가는 말이네요.

[arandel]

기사쓰는 놈은 의식을 못했겠지만 제목에 은근히 선입견이 깔려있네요.

[작은하늘]

아~ 어느나라 말인지 줄줄줄 써있내 이것참 무식이 죄지 죄 ㅜ_ㅜ (이걸 읽는 사람은 대단 부럽습니다 ㅜ_ㅜ)

[修羅場]

이 기사 쓴 놈도 한국인이네요-.- 최상훈 이 개쉬끼~~

[언제나-화이링]

진짜........화나고...요즘엔 뉴스 보기도 싫네요.....엠바고 깰때부터 알아봤어야 하는데......이제 진실보다는 이놈에 언론나부랭이들...떠드는거 진짜 보기 싫어요.....황우석 박사를 무조껀 믿을 수도 없고....언론을 신뢰할 수도 없네요.....뭘 믿죠? 당분간 귀막고...눈 감고...입 다물고 살래요...

[세상모든돈의주인]

음 그림이 참 이뿌네 깜장 색깔도 맘에들고 @,.@