Hwang woo suk biography channel

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The second show in 2006, on January 10, dealt further with the Hwang affair, focusing on several instances of Hwang's media spinning tactics. He was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at SeoulNationalUniversity who becameinfamous for fabricating a series of experiments, whichappeared in high-profile journals, in the field of stem cell research.

Following on the confirmation of scientific misconduct, on January 11, Science retracted both of Hwang's papers on unconditional terms.

On January 12, 2006, Hwang held a press conference to apologize for the entire fiasco, but still did not admit to cheating. UntilNovember 2005, he was considered one of the pioneeringexperts in the field, best known for two articlespublished in the journalScience in 2004 and 2005 where he reported to have succeeded in creatinghumanembryonic stem cells by cloning.

On May 12, 2006, Hwang was charged with embezzlement and bioethics law violationsafter it emerged much of his stem cell research had been faked.

Yoon Hyun-soo, a biology professor at Hanyang University, also embezzled 58 million won from the research fund managed by MizMedi Hospital.

On August 2, 2007, after much independent investigation, it was revealed that Hwang's team succeeded in extracting cells from eggs that had undergone parthenogenesis. Meanwhile, the ruling and opposition parties called on the Korean Broadcasting Commission to thoroughly investigate the staffers of MBCs PD Notebook, which broadcast a documentary program critical of Hwang with coercive tactics in interviews, and reprimand them.

After most of Hwang's claims were confirmed fake on January 10, 2006, some lawmakers revealed that Hwang made several campaign donations to them and other lawmakers.

The investigative journalism show MBC PD Notebook (Korean: PD수첩) returned on air on January 3, 2006, and summarized the course of Hwang's scandal to date.

It remained off the air for five weeks. Hwang also withdrew 140 million won in August 2001 to buy gifts for his sponsors, including politicians and other prominent social figures, before Chusok holidays, according to prosecutors. However, in November 2005, Gerald Schatten, a University of Pittsburgh researcher who had worked with Hwang for two years, made the surprise announcement that he had ceased his collaboration with Hwang.

Song Young-sun and Chin Soo-hee of the GNP said they would provide their eggs to Hwang’s research team. The panel found out that, contrary to Hwang's claim of having used 185 eggs for his team's 2005 paper, at least 273 eggs were shown to have been used according to research records kept in Hwang's lab. This was later confirmed by the journal.

Researchers raised questions about striking similarities between the DNA profiles of the cloned cells.

However, Roh claimed Hwang was unaware of this, while the South Korean Ministry of Health assured that no laws or ethical guidelines had been breached as there were no commercial interests involved in this payout. Also in 2005, Hwang received one billion won each in research funds from SK Group and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation based on his fabricated stem cell research results.

Seoul National University announced this week it would conduct an internal probe into Hwang's research."

Some scientists have started questioning Hwang's earlier work published in Science in February 2004 in which he claimed to have cloned embryonic stem cells.

Hwang Woo-suk began to receive attention as he became famous for animal cloning. Hwang Woo-suk, who was initially predicted to be the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize, was eventually revealed to have fabricated a stem cell paper due to a report by PD Notebook, and ended up becoming a disgrace to the Korean scientific community and as a scientist.

This was the fact that Dr. Hwang Woo-suk announced, “We have succeeded in extracting and cultivating human embryonic cloning and therapeutic stem cells for the first time in the world.” Stem cells generally refer to cells in the early stages of differentiation that have stopped just before they grow into specific organs such as bones, blood, and heart.

in veterinary medicine from SNU's College of Veterinary Medicine, with his doctoral research contributing to early work in theriogenology, the branch of veterinary science concerned with animal reproduction.^[7] This training equipped him with expertise in mammalian reproductive technologies, which he later applied to cloning and biotechnology research.^[6]

Initial Career in Animal Reproduction

Work at Seoul National University

Hwang Woo-suk joined the faculty of Seoul National University (SNU) around 1986 following postdoctoral research in Japan, serving as a professor in the Department of Theriogenology within the College of Veterinary Medicine until his dismissal in 2006.^[6] His initial research emphasized animal reproductive technologies, particularly in livestock, where he advanced techniques for in vitro oocyte maturation, fertilization, and embryo transfer applicable to cows, pigs, and horses to enhance breeding efficiency.^[6] These methods addressed challenges in mammalian reproduction, such as low success rates in oocyte development outside the body, building on veterinary principles to support agricultural and biomedical applications.^[6]By the late 1990s, Hwang's laboratory shifted toward somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) for cloning, achieving South Korea's first cloned dairy cow, named Yeongrong-i, in 1999 through nuclear transfer from adult somatic cells into enucleated oocytes.^[9] This success demonstrated the feasibility of cloning large mammals in his SNU facilities and established his expertise in overcoming technical barriers like incomplete reprogramming of donor nuclei, which often led to developmental failures in early attempts.^[9] Subsequent work included producing cloned cows resistant to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) via SCNT with genetically modified cells, aiming for safer xenotransplantation sources, though efficiency remained low with survival rates under 1% for viable offspring.^[6] These animal reproduction efforts at SNU laid the groundwork for Hwang's later, more controversial pursuits in human applications, garnering national support and funding for his laboratory's expansion.^[9]

Early Research on Mammalian Cloning

Hwang Woo-suk's early research on mammalian cloning centered on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a technique involving the transfer of a nucleus from a differentiated somatic cell into an enucleated oocyte to produce genetically identical embryos for reproductive cloning.^[10] This work, conducted primarily at Seoul National University, targeted livestock species to advance reproductive biotechnology and genetic engineering for agriculture.^[3] His efforts built on foundational SCNT successes like Dolly the sheep in 1996, adapting the method to overcome challenges in larger mammals such as low success rates due to incomplete nuclear reprogramming and high embryonic loss.^[11]In February 1999, Hwang's team announced the birth of Yeongrong-i, a cloned Holstein dairy cow derived via SCNT from adult somatic cells, representing South Korea's first reported mammalian clone and demonstrating feasibility in bovine species.^[9] This achievement involved culturing donor cells from the mammary gland or other tissues, followed by oocyte reconstruction and embryo transfer to surrogate cows, yielding a viable offspring after multiple implantation attempts.^[12] Subsequent refinements led to serial cloning efforts, producing additional bovine clones to study developmental viability and genetic stability, though exact numbers of live births remained limited by technical inefficiencies common in early SCNT protocols.^[13]By the early 2000s, Hwang extended SCNT to pigs, announcing in 2002 the cloning of a genetically modified pig engineered for potential xenotransplantation, incorporating human genes to reduce organ rejection risks in humans.^[9] In December 2003, his laboratory reported cloning a cow resistant to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) through SCNT using donor cells modified for prion protein resistance, aiming to mitigate agricultural disease outbreaks.^[14] These experiments highlighted Hwang's focus on applied cloning for economic benefits, including enhanced milk production in cows and organ sourcing in pigs, with laboratory protocols emphasizing oocyte quality from abattoir-sourced material and micromanipulation for nuclear injection.^[9] While these mammalian clones were not subject to the later fraud allegations centered on human cells, independent verification of individual births relied on internal lab records and genetic fingerprinting, consistent with standards for animal cloning at the time.^[15]

Breakthroughs in Animal Cloning

Cloning of Domestic Animals

Hwang Woo-suk's research team at Seoul National University achieved early success in cloning domestic animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).