SHAMED South Korean cloning researcher Woo Suk Hwang faked all his research on cloned human stem cells, according to the final report of a probe into Hwang’s work. He is now facing a criminal investigation for fraud.
Besides the already discredited May 2005 paper in which Hwang and his team said they created 11 stem cell lines tailored to individual patients (Science, vol 307, p 1777), an investigative panel from Seoul National University found no evidence that Hwang created the first human embryonic stem cell line from a cloned embryo, as he claimed in 2004 (Science, vol 303, p 1669). Both studies were initially hailed as huge breakthroughs in stem-cell science. But “there was no scientific evidence that Hwang had established stem cells”, Myung Hee Chung, head of the panel, told the press on Tuesday.
“All of us who admired Hwang are saddened by this revelation”
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There was vindication for some of Hwang’s work, though. DNA tests commissioned by the panel in its month-long investigation showed that the world’s first cloned dog – an Afghan hound called Snuppy created by Hwang and published in Nature (vol 436, p 641) – was not an impostor. “They have a significant degree of technology, as witnessed in the cloning of Snuppy,” Chung told journalists. “However, they have not produced patient-tailored stem cells from cloned embryos.”
“All of us who admired Hwang are deeply saddened by this revelation,” says Stephen Minger, a stem cell expert at King’s College London. “However, it is likely to have a minimal effect on stem cell biology per se and work in the field will continue.”
