황우석 제자들, 구제역 저항돼지 연구
황우석 박사가 설립한 수암생명공학연구원이 구제역에 저항성을 가진 형질전환돼지에 대한 연구를 시작한 것으로 알려졌다.
수암생명공학연구원장을 맡고 있는 현상환 충북대 수의학과 교수에 따르면 연구원은 구제역이 안동에서 발발한 직후인 작년 12월부터 구제역에 저항성을 가진 형질전환 돼지에 대한 연구를 시작했다.
현 교수는 구제역에 저항성을 지니도록 형질 전환된 세포라인을 탈핵된 난자에 삽입한 후 분화를 유도, 대리모에 임신시켜 복제하는 방식으로 구제역 저항돼지에 대한 연구를 계속한다고 밝혔다.
현재 세포라인 성립에 대해서는 상당한 진전을 이루었지만 구제역에 따른 규제로 인해 농가나 연구시설에 대한 접근이 어려워 복제연구는 제한적이라고 밝혔다.
수암연구원 측은 구제역 뿐만 아니라 신종 인플루엔자에 대한 연구도 동시에 진행시키고 있다.
현 교수는 “최근 인플루엔자는 조류에서 시작, 돼지를 통해 증폭되거나 변이를 일으켜 인간에 영향을 주고 있습니다. 이 채널에서 돼지의 역학을 끊어내는 것이 중요하다고 생각합니다”라고 했다.
By Kim Tae-gyu
A team of Korean scientists are working on making pigs resistant to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from birth as the highly-contagious virus continues to weigh on the country’s farmers.
Professor Hyun Sang-hwan at Chungbuk National University said Sunday that the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation (SBRF) has tried to develop transgenic cloned pigs over the past few months.
The SBRF is linked with disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk. As a disciple of Hwang, professor Hyun spearheads various research at the Seoul-based institute.
``After FMD broke out late last year, we started work on coming up with pigs that have a natural resistance to the disease. We achieved substantial progresses in establishing transgenic cell lines,’’ Hyun said.
``With the cells, we plan to clone pigs not vulnerable to FMD., We can’t currently conduct cloning as we are not allowed to approach farms or facilities but will be able to do so when FMD is contained.’’
The disease affects cloven-hoofed animals, mostly domesticated ones including cattle, pigs, goats, deer and sheep. The current outbreak started in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province in late November and quickly spread across the nation.
This winter the epidemic claimed the lives of more than 3 million pigs and cattle, prompting the Seoul administration to pay trillions of won to farmers in compensation.
Hyun said that his team thought of similar moves in the early 2000s but jettisoned the idea after learning that the government was reluctant to accept it for some reason.
The professor said that the development of transgenic cloned pigs is about more than just the single project of creating FMD-resistant pigs.
``A host of new influenza tends to start from birds and go through pigs to gain power or to generate variants before affecting people. It has been recognized as a typical channel,’’ Hyun said.
``What we are eventually striving to do is to cut the channel through making pigs that are resistant to such influenza. Up until now, we have seen some advances in that initiative too.’’
Influenza A (H1N1) in 2009 was called swine flu, as it was related to pigs. The virus caused numerous deaths and the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic.
It is not known whether Hwang is directly involved in the research.
Hwang emerged to global stardom after claiming to have cloned human embryonic stem cells in 2004 and in 2005 through separate papers, both of which were featured in the illustrious U.S. journal Science.
But Hwang and his aides were found to have doctored data and worse, there were no cloned human embryonic stem cells at all. After that, Hwang became a scientific pariah.
Hwang even faced legal fights on charges of embezzling research funds and illegally buying human eggs. He was convicted in 2009 and given a suspended prison term. But he has forged ahead with cloning research at the SBRF.