Hwang Woo-suk’s research was supposed to be the harbinger of a medical revolution. In the space of 18 extraordinary months in 2004 and 2005, his team claimed to have created the first cloned human embryo, and then to have produced cloned embryonic stem (ES) cells, apparently paving the way for a new era of regenerative therapy.

His achievements seemed important because ES cells are the body’s master cells, with the ability to form every type of human tissue. If derived from clones of patients, they might be transplanted to treat conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson’s or paralysis without risk of rejection by the immune system. They would also provide powerful laboratory models for studying disease and developing new therapies.

The revelation that Hwang had faked his data, just six months after he published his most celebrated paper, thus appeared to be a body blow for stem cell research. Yet the field has since moved on in different and more exciting new directions.

Even before Hwang’s disgrace, many scientists doubted whether cloned stem cells had quite the therapeutic potential that was often claimed for them. To produce them in the quantities needed for treatment would require vast numbers of human eggs, which are in short supply because of ethical problems obtaining them from donors.

Ordinary, uncloned stem cells, which would be matched to patients in similar fashion to transplant organs, were always likely to be a more practical option for treatment. And for research, there was the prospect of hybrid embryos made from human DNA and animal eggs, as approved in last year’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

Stem cell research has more recently taken another new turn, with the discovery that it is possible to turn back the clock on adult human cells to give them the versatile properties of embryonic tissue.

These induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells would potentially have all the advantages of cloned stem cells, but few of the drawbacks: they require neither eggs, which are in short supply, nor the destruction of embryos, to which some religious groups have ethical objections.

IPS cells are not yet ready for patient trials: there are lingering concerns that the techniques used to make them could provoke cancer, and they have not been proven as versatile as true ES cells. But they are already being used in medical research, and most stem cell scientists believe they have a promising future as therapies.

Hwang’s fraud was certainly an unedifying chapter for science, but it does not now seem to have seriously set back the progress of regenerative medicine. It may even have advanced the field, by killing much of the hype about therapeutic cloning and diverting talent and resources into areas with greater long-term potential.

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