Jan 10, 2006, 15:51 GMT
Seoul - Controversial South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo Suk falsified both of his landmark papers on human stem-cell research from the years 2004 and 2005, his university said Tuesday.
South Korean Seoul National University's research chairperson Joung Myung-hee (C) speaks during a press conference where South Korean Seoul National University's research office final decision announced that the Hwang Woo-suk research team fabricated stem cell at Seoul National University's in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday 10 January 2006. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
After a month-long investigation, the Seoul National University panel found that Hwang's team could not prove that it had ever cloned customized stem cells for patients or human embryonic stem-cell lines.
The panel said Tuesday that Hwang had faked stem cells submitted to Science magazine for a 2004 paper in which he claimed to have achieved the first and so far only therapeutic cloning of a human embryo.
Last month, the panel announced that Hwang had fabricated research for his paper published in Science last year on another first: claims of creating stem cells with a patient's specific genetic material that were derived through cloned embryos.
The 53-year-old veterinarian did, however, create the world's first cloned dog, the panel found.
The panel called for harsh punishments for all those that took part in the manipulation of the research. 'Such an act is none other than deceiving the scientific community and the public at large,' it said.
Hwang faces a criminal investigation, the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday shortly after the release of the panel's findings.
'We have taken up our own investigation,' an official in the Prosecutor's Office said.
The office said its inquiry is to focus on whether Hwang's team violated the law in how it used grants in his work and how it acquired human eggs for his research.
Hwang has not made a statement about the latest charges, but he had defended his work previously and claimed he was the victim of sabotage.
The veterinarian stressed that he did have the technology to clone stem cells from embryos, but the panel said that the researcher did not.
The 2005 paper was hailed as a breakthrough in finding treatments for incurable diseases, such as Alzheimer's and diabetes, and the cloning research catapulted the farm boy turned veterinarian into an international scientific superstar and national hero.
But the university investigators said at the close of their one- month investigation that Hwang had neither cloned human embryonic stem cells nor created patient-specific stem cells.
The DNA of the stem cells in Hwang's laboratory did not match the DNA of the donors, the panel found.
'According to the records of Professor Hwang's research team regarding the stage of cell-line establishment, the scientific bases for claiming any success are wholly lacking,' they said.
But the panel did support Hwang's claim that he cloned the world's first dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy after the Seoul National University, where Hwang conducted his research.
It also found that Hwang's team may be 'in possession of a technique for creating cloned human blastocyst', an earlier stage of embryo.
However, it added that the fabrication of evidence for the other two studies should result in disciplinary action against all the scientists involved in Hwang's research.
'These individuals cannot be regarded as representing science in Korea,' it said.
With a total of 2,061 eggs donated by 129 women between 2002 and 2005, the panel also accused Hwang's team of having used considerably more human eggs for his research than he had claimed.
The panel's findings destroyed any hope that Hwang's team had achieved a breakthrough in so-called therapeutic cloning. Researchers hope one day to be able to produce embryonic stem cells that can replace damaged organs.
According to a report by the Economy Ministry obtained by the Yonhap news agency, the government had placed 41 billion won (42.4 million dollars) at parliament's disposal for Hwang's research since 1998. Last year alone, Hwang's lab received 11.3 billion won in government funding.
Since the scandal broke, however, the Economy Ministry has ceased its financial support of Hwang's research.
Investigations into the acclaimed researcher began in November after colleagues charged that Hwang had used human egg cells that were unethically obtained from lab workers and paid donors. At the time, Hwang resigned from all public posts he held.
The allegations escalated in December after a colleague charged that Hwang had faked the stem cells he said he produced for last year's study.
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