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Seoul National University on Monday decided to sack the disgraced
cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk without benefits. Four other faculty
members involved in the fabrication of Hwang¡¯s ostensibly
groundbreaking research results will be suspended -- medicine professor
Moon Shin-yong and veterinary professor Kang Sung-geun for three months
and veterinarian Lee Byung-chun and medicine professor Ahn Cu-rie for
two. The committee also decided to dock the salaries of agriculture
professor Lee Chang-kyu and medicine professor Baek Sun-ha for a month.
Insiders say the measures are not as strict as SNU President Chung
Un-chan originally promised and wonder why. Suspension, dismissal with
benefits and dismissal without benefits are the three most serious
disciplinary measures under SNU regulations. Meanwhile, prosecutors investigating the scandal said Monday
the contamination of stem cell cultures at Hwang¡¯s lab in January last
year was an accident. Seoul Central District Prosecutors¡¯ Office said researchers at
the laboratory did not deliberately contaminate the cell cultures,
which were subsequently destroyed, leading to the absence of any
evidence for Hwang¡¯s claim that he and his team produced stem cells
from cloned embryos.
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From left: Profs Hwang Woo-suk, Ahn Cu-rie and Moon Shin-yong
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On Jan. 9, 2005, stem cells nos. 2 to 7 Hwang¡¯s team was cultivating
were contaminated. The team moved the contaminated cells to MizMedi
Hospital, which collaborated with the team, but they could not be
restored. The team then used data from stem cell nos. 2 and 3, which
had been separately stored at the hospital, to document findings in a
paper published in the U.S. journal Science the same year, manipulating
data to make it look as if there were 11 stem cell lines. Prosecutors
have confirmed that these two stem cells, however, were grown from
in-vitro fertilized eggs rather than from embryos cloned from patients¡¯
somatic cells, thus further discrediting the paper. The criminal investigation was triggered by a complaint from
Hwang that MizMedi researchers maliciously contaminated the stem cells.
Monday¡¯s announcement puts an end to speculation about the
contamination. In determining how to deal with a case in territory as
uncharted as the cutting-edge science of stem cells, prosecutors
earlier dispatched a staffer to Japan to listen to authorities there.
The staffer came back reporting Japanese prosecutors were skeptical of
dealing with the matter in a criminal investigation. The office hopes
to conclude the probe by early next month. (englishnews@chosun.com )
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