Cloning pioneer 'admitted faking stem cells'
A doctor who provided human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk claimed today that the South Korean scientist admitted most of the stem cells he produced and documented in a journal article were faked, according to news reports.
Roh Sung-il, chairman of the board at Mizmedi Hospital, told KBS television Hwang had agreed to ask the journal Science to withdraw the paper, published in June.
Roh was one of the co-authors of the article that detailed how individual stem cell colonies were created for 11 patients through cloning.
Roh said nine of the embryonic stem cell lines Hwang had claimed were cloned in the paper were faked, and the authenticity of the other two was unknown.
Hwang didn’t answer his phone and researchers from his lab at Seoul National University couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten has already asked that Science remove him as the senior author of the report, citing questions about the paper’s accuracy.
Hwang’s team has admitted it made an error that led to duplicated photos accompanying the article, but editors of Science have so far stood by the paper’s findings.
Regarded as a world-leading researcher in stem cells, Hwang’s work has recently come under a cloud of suspicion.
Last month, he publicly apologised after admitting that, despite earlier denials, he used eggs donated by two junior female scientists in his lab – a violation of international ethics guidelines.
Hwang also stepped down as head of the World Stem Cell Hub, an international project launched in October aimed at finding treatments for incurable diseases.
Scientists hope that stem cell research could one day lead to finding cures for hard-to-treat diseases such as paralysis and Parkinson’s disease.
