SOUTH KOREA: A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to discredited scientist Hwang Woo-suk yesterday, concluding his once-celebrated team provided no data to prove a claim they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells.
The findings deepened the disgrace of a man once heralded as a national hero for his pioneering work on stem cell and cloning research, who now faces possible criminal charges.
The panel will also review Dr Hwang's 2004 paper on creating the first cloned human embryos for research and a claim he produced the world's first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.
Dr Hwang did receive a bit of good news when a DNA lab in Seoul, not part of the panel's investigation, said its tests indicated that Snuppy was a clone.
But that was the only upbeat news in an otherwise sombre day for the scientist.
"It is the panel's judgment that Prof Hwang's team does not have the scientific data to prove that they [ patient-specific stem cells] were made," said Roe Jung-hye, chief of Seoul National University's research office.
The same panel said last week that a 2005 paper produced by Dr Hwang's team contained data that was deliberately fabricated and had undermined the fundamentals of science.
It said the team may have produced only two stem cell lines, not 11 as the authors of the landmark paper had claimed.
Mr Roe told reporters the final two lines, which could have proved the fundamental findings of Dr Hwang's team, were not produced in Dr Hwang's lab but at a Seoul hospital.
"The findings of three labs showed the number two and number three stem cell lines that needed confirmation with regard to the 2005 paper did not match patient tissue cells and were found to be fertilised-egg stem cells of MizMedi hospital," Mr Roe said.
Experts say the stem cell case is fast developing into one of the biggest scientific frauds in recent history: the next questions will be how Dr Hwang's team was able to pull it off and exactly how many people were involved. - (Reuters)