Panel says stem cell work faked
Researcher apologizes, resigns from university
Friday, December 23, 2005; Posted: 3:17 a.m. EST (08:17 GMT)
Source:
CNN Health
Hwang bows to the nation Friday as he apologizes at Seoul National
University.
Stem cell scientist resigns over phony research
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Researcher Hwang Woo-suk apologized Friday and
resigned from a South Korean university after the school announced that he
fabricated results in stem-cell research that had raised hopes of new cures for
hard-to-treat diseases.
A university panel, releasing findings of a probe, accused Hwang of damaging the
scientific community with his deception, while South Korea's government rued the
scandal surrounding the country's star scientist and said it may pull its
funding for his research.
"I sincerely apologize to the people for creating a shock and disappointment,"
Hwang told reporters as he was leaving his office at Seoul National University,
considered the country's top institution of higher learning.
"With an apologizing heart ... I step down as professor," he said.
However, Hwang still maintained that he had produced the technology to create
patient-matched stem cells as he claimed to do in a May article in the journal
Science.
"I emphasize that patient-specific stem cells belong to South Korea and you are
going to see this," said Hwang, a veterinarian.
Earlier Friday, a panel of Seoul National University experts said Hwang had
faked results of at least nine of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created
in the May paper -- the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a
shadow over all his purported breakthroughs in cloning and stem-cell technology.
"This kind of error is a grave act that damages the foundation of science," the
panel said.
The South Korean government, which had strongly supported Hwang and designated
him the country's first "top scientist," said Friday it was "miserable" over the
reported results of the investigation and admitted errors in its handling of
Hwang.
Choi Sung-sik, vice minister of science and technology, said it's impossible to
recover money already spent for Hwang, a total 40.5 billion won (US $39.9
million, 33.75 million euros) for research and facilities since 1998. But his
ministry will look at ending other funding and withdraw the "top scientist"
designation.
Still, the government said it would support other similar research.
The university panel said Friday it found that "the laboratory data for 11 stem
cell lines that were reported in the 2005 paper were all data made using two
stem cell lines in total."
To create fake DNA results purporting to show a match, Hwang's team split cells
from one patient into two test tubes for the analysis -- rather than actually
match cloned cells to a patient's original cells, the university said.
"Based on these facts, the data in the 2005 Science paper cannot be some error
from a simple mistake, but cannot be but seen as a deliberate fabrication to
make it look like 11 stem-cell lines using results from just two," the panel
said.
"There is no way but that Professor Hwang has been involved," the university's
dean of research affairs, Roe Jung-hye, told a news conference, adding that
Hwang "somewhat admits to this."
The panel said DNA tests expected to be completed within a few days would
confirm if the remaining two stem-cell lines it had found were actually
successfully cloned from a patient.
In light of the revelations, the panel said it would now also investigate
Hwang's other landmark papers -- which include another Science article in 2004
on the world's first cloned human embryos, and an August 2005 paper in the
journal Nature on the first-ever cloned dog. The journals already are reviewing
all the work.
Hwang has already asked Science to withdraw the May paper, citing "fatal
errors," claiming he had created only some of the 11 stem-cell colonies at the
time of publication but completed the work later.
The university panel said Friday that it found no records of two of the other
stem-cell lines Hwang claims to have created. Four others died from
contamination, and another three were in the nurturing stage and hadn't yet
become full stem-cell lines.
Hwang's article this year had also been viewed as significant for his efficiency
in cloning the stem-cell lines, claiming to use just 185 human eggs to create
custom-made embryonic stem cells for the 11 patients.
But Roe said the investigation had "found that there have been a lot more eggs
used than were reported" and were investigating the exact number.
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