Disgraced South Korean cloning scientist Woo Suk Hwang has set up a research base in Thailand, according to reports from South Korea last week. Science-policy officials in Thailand say they are worried about the reports, as they knew nothing about this.

Woo Suk Hwang is said to have moved to Thailand to continue cloning. Credit: YONHAP, S. R. BAK/AP

Se Pil Park, a fertility expert at Cheju National University in South Korea, says Hwang and ten colleagues have gone to Thailand to carry out cloning experiments involving the transfer of human DNA into eggs from cows, pigs and other animals. The resulting embryos cannot produce viable offspring, but might result in embryonic stem-cell lines that could be cultured for research and for therapeutic use.

In 2004, Hwang claimed to have produced embryonic stem cells by cloning human DNA using human eggs. But the data behind these claims were found to have been fabricated. Park would not disclose details of the researcher's latest work, nor where he was based.

Hwang, who remains on trial for fraud, embezzlement and violation of a bioethics law related to his discredited experiments, lost his licence to do research with human eggs. According to Park, Hwang went to Thailand to carry out interspecies cloning because he thought he would face opposition from ethicists in his home country.

In Thailand, human reproductive cloning was made illegal in 2002, but there are currently no laws regulating therapeutic cloning involving human DNA or interspecies cloning. According to Thai veterinary scientist Pradon Chatikavanij, proposed regulations on animal experimentation now before the main legislative body, the Council of State, might restrict interspecies cloning, although no decision on this has yet been made. Chatikavanij is the former head of and now a consultant for the National Research Council of Thailand, which is in charge of drafting the regulations.

Chatikavanij says the Thai government knows nothing about any research being done by Hwang in Thailand. “We should know what they are doing. We are very concerned about what is happening,” he says.