Copyright 2005 Asia Pulse Pte Limited
Asia Pulse
May 19, 2005 Thursday
SECTION: Northern Territory Regional
LENGTH: 273 words
HEADLINE: S. KOREAN, BRITISH CLONING EXPERTS AGREE ON JOINT RESEARCH
DATELINE: LONDON, May 19

A South Korean scientist credited with the world's first extraction of human stem cells from a cloned embryo said Wednesday he will launch joint research with a British scientist to develop stem cell treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease.

Hwang Woo-suk, who has been in London since Tuesday, agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding in October with Ian Wilmut, the scientist who created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal.

The agreement comes about a month after Wilmut, from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, visited Seoul last month and proposed the idea of combining his expertise in animal cloning and treatment of Lou Gehrig's disease with Hwang's expertise in human embryo cloning.

"The research will have a complementary effect and will be expanded to treat various incurable diseases besides Lou Gehrig's disease," Hwang said.

Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a disorder which destroys the motor neurons that control muscle movement and could lead to paralysis. It was named after a U.S. baseball player for the New York Yankees who died from the condition in 1941.

The two sides will sign the agreement when Wilmut visits Seoul, after narrowing out differences on the research content, intellectual rights and other details.

In February 2004, Hwang and his colleagues succeeded in cloning human embryos, from which they later extracted embryonic stem cells.

Scientists say embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into other kinds of cells that could possibly be used to treat ailments such as heart failure and Parkinson's disease.