By Hilary White
SEOUL, December 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Korean cloning researcher, Dr Hwang Woo-suk, author of the cloning research paper that was lauded in the international press as the most important, epoch-making breakthrough in the stem cell field, has allegedly admitted to colleagues that he fabricated some of the results.Â
Roh Sung-il, who collaborated on the paper, published in the leading journal, Science, said in television interviews that at least nine of the eleven stem cell lines the team had claimed to have created were faked. Roh said that a team member had been pressured into doctoring results to make the embryos look like clones.
Hwang himself, however, has only gone as far as admitting that some of the photographs appearing in the paper were duplicated. He said in a statement, “I apologize for creating this uproar both in and out of Korea. The fact remains that our research team was successful in creating stem cells from patients’ skin cells. Still, there were mistakes made, human errors, in taking photographs and in the preservation of the stem cells.”
Roh, chairman of the Mizmedi hospital, told South Korean news sources, “Professor Hwang admitted to fabrication.” Roh said that photographs of two groups of cells were made to appear as though there were more for the report.
The journal’s publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science confirmed that Hwang and Dr. Gerald Schatten, the study’s lead authors, have asked that the paper be withdrawn. The Association, however, said that the paper could not be withdrawn without the agreement of all the authors.
Seoul National University and the University of Pittsburgh are investigating and Dr. Hwang is said to be receiving treatment for stress in hospital.
British cloning researcher Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the sheep, has suggested that Hwang submit the cells for independent tests to verify his claims.
The controversy has created a furor in South Korea, which had been positioning itself as a leading country in stem cell research based on Hwang’s work. Biotech stocks in Seoul have plummeted and the South Korean president has called an emergency cabinet meeting.
The creation of cloned human embryos, and from them of stem cell lines genetically matched to patients, usually referred to as “therapeutic cloning,” is considered the holy grail of the embryonic stem cell field, one that most researchers believed was years away. The news that the South Korean team had achieved it was greeted with surprised jubilation by media and the scientific community around the world.
The media enthusiasm was largely unchecked by any acknowledgement of the immoral nature of cloning human beings or killing them to extract stem cells. The research is still regularly called “controversial” however, and some researchers are worried that the negative press could cause problems for the industry.
Robert Lanza, medical director of Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc., a biotechnology company working on stem cell therapies called the news a “disaster.’’ “We were hoping that stem cell research would become less controversial, not more. The fact that it’s going up in flames is obviously a black eye to the field.”