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Seoul National University has started investigating research led by the
embattled cloning pioneer Prof. Hwang Woo-suk. If all goes according to
plan, it will be clear in four or five days whether the professor and
his team really made patient-specific stem cells, as they claim in a
May paper published in Science. The SNU team visited Hwang¡¯s lab at the
university¡¯s College of Veterinary Medicine on Sunday morning and
interviewed Hwang and 20 other researchers for several hours, while
also looking into experimental data. The panel is to check the DNA
fingerprints of five frozen stem cells Hwang says are being thawed for
cross-checking.
On Friday, a former member of Hwang¡¯s team now at the University of
Pittsburgh told reporters he had personally seen eight patient-specific
stem cells the team made by cloning patients¡¯ somatic cells. Kim
Sun-jong earlier said he took photographs of two stem cells to make it
appear there were 11 at Hwang¡¯s instruction. That admission was the
clearest indication yet that Hwan's May paper was fabricated. However,
Kim said he had no information about Hwang¡¯s claim that the cloned
embryonic stem cells were ¡°mixed up¡± with ordinary embryonic stem cells
preserved at MizMedi Hospital. Meanwhile, suspicions are rebounding on Prof. Gerald Schatten
of Pittsburgh, who earlier publicly severed ties with Hwang over ethics
violations and later asked his name to be taken off the May paper
claiming ¡°new information¡± caused him to question results. Roh Sung-il,
the head of MizMedi Hospital, said Schatten knew that nine out of the
11 stem cells died after being contaminated in the lab in January. It
was March when the article co-authored by Schatten was submitted to the
journal. Since it takes at least three months to cultivate stem cells,
a scientist should have raised questions upon hearing that nine stem
cells were cultivated in only two months, he said. There are also accusations that Cheong Wa Dae was told of the
accident at the time. If it was, the presidential office will be under
intense pressure to say how much it knew and why it kept silent. Meanwhile, prosecutors are reportedly reviewing statements
made by Hwang, Roh and Kim in their press conferences. But they say
they will not take action until the scientific inquiry is complete. (englishnews@chosun.com )
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