By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter


Seoul National University will start construction Friday of a $25 billion state-of-the-art medical bioengineering laboratory for stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk on its Kwanak campus, south of Seoul.

Attendees at the ceremony to be held at 11 a.m. include Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor Lee Myung-bak and Seoul National University President Chung Un-chan.

The Ministry of Science and Technology will shoulder the entire 25 billion won construction and facilities cost for the lab, dubbed the ``Hwang Woo-suk Research Center.’’

The cutting-edge research facility, which will be completed by October 2006, will house research facilities for primate studies, stem cell research, animal cloning, and cell transplant and molecular biology research projects.

Renowned foreign science research centers plan to establish branch offices in the new laboratory building to conduct joint research with professor Hwang, the university said. Those include a research team led by Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and another team led by Ian Wilmut, a Scottish embryologist with the Roslin Institute who succeeded in cloning the sheep ``Dolly’’ for the first time in the world.

The research center, which will have five aboveground and two belowground floors, will be built on a 1,646.7-square-meter lot. The National Intelligence Service will deploy a task force to maintain airtight security at the center.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr