Aug 18, 2006, 12:07 GMT
Seoul - The South Korean cloning pioneer who was disgraced in a scandal over falsifying his stem-cell research has returned to work at his own, private laboratory in Seoul, news reports said Friday.
With start-up capital of 2.5 billion won (2.65 million dollars), Hwang Woo Suk received the approval of the Science and Technology Ministry in July to set up his Suam Biotechnology Research Centre.
Hwang's attorney Lee Geon Haeng told The Korea Times that his client began working again this month and is now concentrating on cloning animals that are genetically engineered to provide organs to humans.
Hwang, 53, and his team of researchers have worked on cloning pigs embedded with human immunity genes with the goal of being able to transplant their organs into people without the risk of their bodies rejecting the new organs.
Hwang hopes to return later to his work on human embryonic stem cells, Lee told the Times.
'But the problem is that Hwang is no longer authorized to conduct human embryonic stem-cell research,' the lawyer was quoted as saying, which would mean he would have to regain government approval for such work - something that was likely to prove difficult.
The veterinarian was fired by the state-run Seoul National University this year after his 2004 and 2005 studies, in which he claimed to be the first to clone human stem cells and develop patient-specific stem cells, were found to be based on manipulated data.
He was indicted in June on charges of fraud and misuse of billions of won in research grants given to him by public and private donors.
Lee said private individuals funded Hwang's new lab, where about 30 researchers are working. Hwang was able to bring the core members from both his animal-cloning and human embryonic stem-cell teams from Seoul National University to his new venture, Lee said.
Your Talkback on this Story