Disgraced cloning expert blames colleague
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 27/12/2005)
The scandal over the fabrication of data purporting to show the cloning of human embryos deepened yesterday.
As South Korea's top university received some of the DNA test results that will be crucial for its investigation, the disgraced stem cell researcher Dr Hwang Woo-suk has implicated another scientist in the furore. Seoul National University commissioned the DNA tests to determine whether he ever created patient-matched stem cells via cloning, as he claimed in the journal Science.
On Friday, the panel said data on at least nine of 11 stem cell lines that Hwang claimed to create via cloned embryos were fabricated. The Yonhap news agency claimed in an unconfirmed report circulating yesterday that the DNA tests would not clear Hwang on the remaining two stem cell lines.
It has also emerged that Hwang filed a petition with the Seoul central district prosecutor's office asking it to investigate whether his collaborators at MizMedi hospital replaced his therapeutic-cloning stem cells with samples from a fertility clinic.
He named Kim Sun-jong, a co-author of Hwang's 2005 paper, who played a key role in developing the purported patient-specific stem cells from cloned human embryos.
"Kim Sun-jong and others disturbed the work of establishing the patient-tailored embryonic stem cells, throwing it into utter confusion," said the petition.
Kim, who now works at the University of Pittsburgh, flew to South Korea on Saturday and was questioned by a panel of experts at the university. He denied having replaced the cloned stem cells.
24 December 2005: Embryo cloning cheat resigns in disgrace
Previous story: Pluto probe could give clues to origin of life
Next story: Inquiry after train crashes in blizzard
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
