by Theresa Kim Hwa-young

The veterinarian who falsely claimed he could clone human stem cells wins back ownership of canine cloning technologies that had launched his brief, albeit controversial, career.

Seoul (AsiaNews) – South Korean veterinarian Hwan Woo-suk, who falsely claimed success in cloning human stem cells, won a lawsuit against the Seoul National University (SNU) over the ownership of canine cloning technologies. Hwang cloned a dog named Snuppy in early 2005 but SNU claimed the patent for the technologies because he was a professor at the state-run university.  

The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, a lab launched by Hwang in 2006, said Monday that SNU dropped a patent suit last month, thus clearing any obstacles to Hwang's research. A court had sided with Hwang in an earlier trial last year. After initially appealing the ruling, SNU decide to give up its case.  

In 2005, Hwang became a star scientist in South Korea after he claimed to have cloned stem cells from human embryos. His work was featured in cover stories in the prestigious US journal Science.   However, later research found that he fabricated data and there were no cloned embryonic stem cells at all.  

In 2006, South Korea banned him from conducting stem cell research. The following year, he was prosecuted. In 2008, the 56-year-old veterinarian applied to resume human stem cell research but his application was turned down. He claimed that stem cells could be useful in treating heart attacks, Alzheimer and Parkinson.

In the case of dog cloning, the legal issue involved ownership of the technologies used in the process. According to the judges who ruled on the matter, the technologies used by Hwang were different from the ones used in the SNU labs. Consequently, he was entitled to ownership and the right to commercial use.

• south
• korea
• hwang
• woo-suk
• seoul
• national
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• snu
• human
• stem
• cell
• cloning
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• dogs
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• judges