Researchers gather to share stem cell information

• Participants include 21 scientists from five nations -- the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and Korea, the Korea Times reported.
• Among them are Seoul National University Professor Moon Shin-yong, who first cloned embryonic human stem cells in 2003 with his colleague Hwang Woo-suk, and Hal Broxmeyer of Indiana University, who discovered stem cells in umbilical cord blood and transplanted them into leukemia patients in the late 1980s.
• Broxmeyer, a world-renowned researcher of blood cell production, was to lecture on the mobilization and homing of blood stem and progenitor cells.
• In addition to lectures by the high-profile researchers, the two-day event will feature wide-ranging topics on both embryonic and adult stem cells, the report said.
• Stem cells, which have the ability to become regular cells or develop into organs and tissues, are attracting huge interest for their therapeutic potential as well as stirring controversy over the use of human embryos.
• Just days ago, U.S. researchers said they had devised a way of generating stem cells without the use of human embryos.