Key Stem Cell Scientists will gather in South Korea on Wednesday to attend the Seoul Symposium on Stem Cell Research, an international event taking place Aug. 25-26 at Yonsei University.

21 scientists from five nations - the United States, Britain, Australia, Japan and Korea will be present, including Moon Shin-yong, professor at Seoul National University, and Hal Broxmeyer of Indiana University.

Dr. Moon, who co-led the first cloning of embryonic human stem cells in 2003 with Professor Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University, will speak on the development of therapeutic cloning tomorrow.

Dr. Broxmeyer, the world-renowned researcher of blood cell production, will give a lecture on the mobilization and homing of blood stem and progenitor cells.

Dr. Broxmeyer is renowned for finding stem cells in umbilical cord blood and transplanting them into leukemia patients in the late 1980s for the first time in history.

The two-day symposium will feature wide-ranging topics on both embryonic and adult stem cells.

Professor Kim Dong-wook of Yonsei University, who is in charge of organizing the symposium, said the event has two goals - raising the standard of Korean stem cell research to the globally competitive one and gathering ethnic Koreans in emerging fields together.

“In the long run, ethnic Korean stem cell scientists may be able to forge a global network to carry out joint research. To achieve the target, this event will play a crucial role,” Kim said.

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