Desperate patients cause stem cell web site to crash

The web site of South Korea's new stem cell bank has crashed even before it began taking applications to take part in research.

According to officials the number of desperate patients accessing the site in their search for cures for deadly and debilitating diseases, have overwhelmed it.

The project was launched on Oct. 19 with the aim of storing stem cells in order to conduct research into finding cures for illnesses such as Parkinson's disease and severe spinal cord injuries.

The idea of the stem cell bank came from South Korean scientist Woo-Suk Hwang who earlier this year was in the headlines worldwide for cloning the first human embryo for research.

It is believed his work could eventually lead to cures for certain types of disease by taking skin from a patient to grow custom-made stem cells with that patient's specific genetic material.

However Hwang himself has warned that cures for such diseases are a long way off.

The stem cell bank began accepting on-line applications on Tuesday on its web site and apparently since then telephone lines have been oversubscribed by patients and their families asking to be included in the research.

An official at the World Stem Cell Hub affiliated with the Seoul National University Hospital has reportedly said a surge in online traffic caused the server to crash on Monday before the bank started taking applications.

It is thought the surge was a result of a TV news report about the opening of registration for test subjects on Parkinson's and spinal cord injury.

According to the South Korean media, bank officials say that subjects will not be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, but would instead be evaluated for a variety of scientific criteria to assess if they complied with the bank's research plans.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, with the potential to develop into any kind of tissue.

Scientists are working to learn how to manipulate them so that cells can be used to treat a wide range of diseases also including diabetes and cancer.

A spokesman for the stem cell bank said that, despite repeated cautions that research was currently at the initial stage of gathering and studying patients' cells, many of those inquiring and registering clearly had unrealistic hopes of a speedy cure.

He stressed that clinical testing is at least five to ten years down the road.

Some objections have been voiced by political and religious leaders concerning the research, because human embryos are destroyed when the stem cells are extracted.