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The disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk, a former professor at Seoul National University, has set up a biotechnology firm specializing in animal cloning, according to sources in the industry. Colleagues on Wednesday said Hwang, who was indicted for embezzling lavish government funds, established a company with W1.3 billion (US1$1=W1,048) of capital and registered it in the Seoul Central District Court on Friday last week.
The company will focus on cloning animals like pet dogs for the time being but eventually aims to concentrate research on somatic cloning and nucleus transplantation, and developing new biotechnological material and bio-organs. A colleague said Hwang has achieved a remarkable progress in cloning pet dogs, and the reason for establishing the firm was that the team saw it as necessary to set up a for-profit organization in order to put the needed manpower into the animal cloning project.
Hwang, a veterinarian by training, deceived the world with false claims that his research team produced customized human stem cells by cloning them from patients’ own genetic material by the unproven method of nucleus transfer. The former national hero was exposed in a massive scandal in 2005.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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