The government will decide Thursday on whether to approve a group of scientists’ request to conduct embryonic stem cell research.

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs will deliberate on the request submitted by Professor Jung Hyung-min’s team at CHA Hospital and will make a final decision during a meeting of the National Bioethics Committee.

If the committee gives its approval, it will mark the first time for the government to allow such stem cell research using somatic cell nuclear transfer technology since 2006 after cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk was found to have fabricated data in his landmark stem cell studies.

In somatic cell nuclear transfer technology, the nucleus extracted from a patient’s somatic cell is inserted into an egg whose nucleus has been removed. The egg, now containing the nucleus of a somatic cell, forms an embryo and stem cells are then created from that embryo.

Last July, the government rejected a request to conduct embryonic stem cell research by the Suam Biotechnology Institute (SBI), a Seoul research lab opened by Hwang in 2006.