S. Korean scientists faked two papers

A team led by a once heralded and now disgraced South Korean scientist faked two landmark papers on embryonic stem cells but did produce the world's first cloned dog, an investigation panel said yesterday.

The panel at Seoul National University told reporters data was deliberately fabricated in papers produced by the team led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk. It described the case as scandalous.

Medical researchers say the episode - which has shocked and shamed many South Koreans who had dubbed Prof. Hwang a hero - is one of the biggest cases of scientific fraud in recent history.

The two papers finally debunked yesterday were a 2004 report on producing the first cloned human embryos for research and a 2005 paper on producing the first embryonic tailored stem cells. Both papers were published in the US periodical Science.

"Hwang's team did not have the data for the stem cell lines in the 2004 paper, but fabricated it," Chung Myung-hee, the head of the panel, told reporters.

Chung reiterated a finding in an interim report late last month that there was no data to prove that Prof. Hwang's team had produced tailored stem cells, as claimed in the May 2005 paper.

That paper caused a sensation because the findings raised hopes that embryonic stem cells could one day be used to create genetically-specific tissue to treat ailments such as severe spinal cord injuries and Parkinson's disease.

"We concluded that Professor Hwang's team did not have patient-specific stem cell lines and did not have any scientific basis that the team made them," the panel said.

The panel said DNA tests proved a 2005 claim made by the team of producing the cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy, which is short for Seoul National University puppy.

The journal Nature, which published the results, said its testing also confirmed Snuppy was a clone.

In a finding likely to be seized on by Prof. Hwang supporters, the panel said the team had created a few human blastocysts, or early embryos, and that implied that "the team was in possession of a technique of creating cloned human blastocyst".

"This reminds us that science is a human endeavour," said David Winickoff, a bioethics assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "And as such, it is subject to ethical lapses and dishonesty."

Prosecutors have said they may start a criminal probe into Prof. Hwang on suspicion of misusing state funds, based on the findings in the panel's report. However, they made no such move on Tuesday.

The crime of fraudulently obtaining state funds can be punished by up to 10 years in prison, local media reported.

The report did not say who might have been responsible for the fabrication. Mr Chung said that would be left to investigative authorities, referring to prosecutors.

Park Ky-young, science adviser to President Roh Moo-hyun, expressed her intention to resign after the report was released, a presidential spokesman said. Park was also a co-author of the 2004 paper from Hwang's team.