South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said Wednesday he plans to open a stem cell bank by the end of the year to help speed up the quest to grow replacement tissue to treat diseases.

　　The bank would consolidate current stem cell lines in one research location. To treat a patient, researchers would look for a cell line that provides a close match to a patient's immune system, Hwang said in an interview with The Associated Press. It would resemble the process now used in finding donors for organ transplants.

　　"We hope to open a world stem cell bank, as early as this year, in Korea," Hwang said. "We will start with what we have, offering them to those patients who sincerely want them for the right reasons."

　　Hwang said he was willing to eventually put the bank under the management of an international agency.

　　"But, it would mean that South Korea is taking the initiative in fighting human disease," he said.

　　Hwang and his researchers at Seoul National University created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients, work that was published in the journal Science last month. That came just a year after his team shocked the world by cloning a human embryo.

　　The match means the stem cells, the building blocks of all bodily tissues, are unlikely to be rejected by the body's immune system. Researchers hope the cells can be used to repair damage caused by ailments such as spinal cord injuries, diabetes or a genetic immune disease.

　　Hwang now wants to move his research into making embryonic stem cells grow into specific organs and tissues.

　　The publication of Hwang's work has made him one of South Korea's busiest and the most celebrated figures, his image gracing newspaper articles and television shows almost daily. His team is notorious for working long hours without weekends or holidays and even sleeping in the lab, but late Wednesday afternoon he found time to talk with a reporter about his project's current status and long-term goals.

　　Hwang's work is at the center of an international controversy over whether to ban all forms of human cloning or to allow it for medical research — known as therapeutic cloning — which South Korea has committed by law to pursue.

　　Culling stem cells destroys the days-old embryo harboring them, regardless of whether it was cloned or left over in a fertility clinic. Opponents, including President Bush, argue that is the same as destroying life. He has banned federal funding for research on all but a handful of old embryonic stem-cell lines.

　　Hwang knows he's treading on sensitive territory and rebutted critics who say he is destroying life.

　　"What we are doing is not creating embryos. An embryo, basically supposes a birth of a life. But we have no intention or goals whatsoever to create life," said Hwang. "When the genetic material is removed from human egg, it becomes a vacant egg shell, I would like to call it that. "

　　Ultimately, though, Hwang said he was a scientist and not a politician.

　　"Our ultimate goal is for those with incurable disease to lead social lives, and to recover their humane right to happiness."

克隆先鋒首要目標(biāo)是攻克人類絕癥

　　日前，在韓國(guó)首都漢城，世界克隆先鋒黃武樹(shù)先生表示，計(jì)劃在今年年底之前建立一座干細(xì)胞銀行，以此來(lái)滿足醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域逐漸增長(zhǎng)的對(duì)于器官移植的需求。

　　據(jù)MSNBC網(wǎng)站6月1日?qǐng)?bào)道，在一次接受美聯(lián)社的采訪中，黃武樹(shù)先生表示，未來(lái)將會(huì)建成的細(xì)胞銀行將會(huì)把當(dāng)前的干細(xì)胞線統(tǒng)一起來(lái)進(jìn)行研究和管理。而在對(duì)患者進(jìn)行治療之前，研究人員需要在銀行中尋找符合患者免疫系統(tǒng)的細(xì)胞線。這種做法與當(dāng)前在器官移植領(lǐng)域的運(yùn)作步驟大致相似。黃武樹(shù)說(shuō)：“我們希望在今年之內(nèi)盡快建立一家世界干細(xì)胞銀行，我們將會(huì)以現(xiàn)有的基礎(chǔ)為起步，為那些真正需要干細(xì)胞的患者提供他們所需要的?！?/P>

　　黃武樹(shù)還指出，另一方面，在干細(xì)胞銀行發(fā)展成熟之后，他最終將會(huì)把實(shí)際的管理權(quán)移交給國(guó)際代理機(jī)構(gòu)，“不過(guò)，銀行的建立仍然表明了韓國(guó)戰(zhàn)勝人類疾病的積極態(tài)度” 。

　　黃武樹(shù)和他在漢城國(guó)際大學(xué)的研究小組曾經(jīng)成功地培育了世界上第1個(gè)在基因方面匹配受傷和虛弱病人的胚胎干細(xì)胞，這一令人振奮的成果也被登載在上月出版的《科學(xué)》雜志上。一年之前，黃武樹(shù)和他的科研小組就曾經(jīng)以成功克隆人類胚胎而震驚了整個(gè)世界。

　　胚胎干細(xì)胞對(duì)于虛弱病人基因的匹配意味著，作為人體所有組織構(gòu)成部件的干細(xì)胞將不會(huì)被人體免疫系統(tǒng)所抵觸。研究人員寄希望于這些培育出來(lái)的干細(xì)胞可以幫助患者自動(dòng)修復(fù)身體中的被損傷部分，如由脊髓損傷、糖尿病或者基因免疫系統(tǒng)疾病引起的損害。據(jù)黃武樹(shù)透露，他正準(zhǔn)備把研究的下一個(gè)重點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)移到利用胚胎干細(xì)胞培育特定器官和組織方面。

　　黃武樹(shù)目前已成為了韓國(guó)最忙碌也是最熱門的人物之一。他的照片頻頻出現(xiàn)在韓國(guó)各大報(bào)紙上，并且也為了電視節(jié)目中的?？?。他的研究小組一直都以超負(fù)荷的工作量而聞名。據(jù)悉，他的工作人員不但沒(méi)有周末和節(jié)假日，連晚上都是睡在實(shí)驗(yàn)室中。

　　同時(shí)，黃武樹(shù)的工作也成為了國(guó)際上有關(guān)克隆問(wèn)題的爭(zhēng)論焦點(diǎn)：是否應(yīng)該禁止一切用途的人類克隆行為？還是允許這種克隆技術(shù)應(yīng)用于醫(yī)療手段，即所謂的治療性克隆。報(bào)道說(shuō)，在韓國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)，醫(yī)療性克隆已經(jīng)通過(guò)相關(guān)的法律。

　　一般來(lái)講，無(wú)論是被克隆還是被轉(zhuǎn)移到其他環(huán)境中，挑選干細(xì)胞線將會(huì)自動(dòng)破壞曾經(jīng)養(yǎng)育它的胚胎。而干細(xì)胞克隆技術(shù)的反對(duì)者，包括美國(guó)總統(tǒng)布什則表示，這屬于一種對(duì)生命的毀滅行為。因此，除了一小部分的胚胎干細(xì)胞線研究外，目前為止布什已經(jīng)禁止了一切有關(guān)此項(xiàng)研究的聯(lián)邦基金。

　　實(shí)際上黃武樹(shù)明白自己觸及到了一個(gè)十分敏感的領(lǐng)域，自己也經(jīng)受了一些嚴(yán)厲的批評(píng)。他說(shuō)：“我們正在從事的工作并不是創(chuàng)造胚胎。胚胎是支撐一切生命的基礎(chǔ)，我們并沒(méi)有任何創(chuàng)造生命的企圖?！秉S武樹(shù)還表示?！叭绻讶祟惻咛ブ械幕虿馁|(zhì)去掉，那么這些胚胎將只是一個(gè)空殼，而這才是我們所作的?！?/P>

　　黃武樹(shù)指出，他自己是一個(gè)完完全全的科學(xué)家，而不是一個(gè)政治家，“我們的最終目標(biāo)是攻克那些至今為止人類束手無(wú)策的絕癥，并且讓更多的患者重新?lián)碛邢硎苄腋５臋?quán)利”。