Fred Derf Veteran Posted December 24, 2005 Veteran Share Posted December 24, 2005 A passenger gets on a transit bus with a picture featuring South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk in Seoul, Thursday. The embattled Hwang admitted to faking stem-cell data. South Korean faked 9 lines of stem cells University finds Hwang used only 2 `Breakthroughs' now being probed Dec. 24, 2005. 01:00 AM SEOUL?South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk faked results of at least nine of 11 stem-cell lines he claimed to have created, a deliberate deception that "damages the foundation of science," his university said yesterday. The announcement by Seoul National University is the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a shadow over his entire list of cloning and stem-cell breakthroughs. In a May paper in Science, Hwang claimed to have created 11 stem-cell lines matched to patients, raising hopes of creating tailored therapies for hard-to-treat diseases. But one former collaborator last week said nine of the 11 lines were faked, prompting reviews by the journal and an expert panel at the university, where Hwang works. The panel said today it found "the laboratory data for 11 stem-cell lines ... reported in the 2005 paper were all data made using two stem cell lines in total.'' To create fake DNA results purporting to show a match, Hwang's team split cells from one patient into two test tubes for the analysis ? rather than actually matching cloned cells to a patient's original cells, the university said. "Based on these facts, the data in the 2005 Science paper cannot be some error from a simple mistake ... cannot be but seen as a deliberate fabrication to make it look like 11 stem-cell lines using results from just two," the panel said. "There is no way but that Professor Hwang has been involved,'' the university dean of research affairs, Roe Jung-hye, told a news conference, adding Hwang "somewhat admits to this.'' DNA tests to be completed within days are expected to confirm if the two lines the panel found were actually successfully cloned from a patient. Given its findings, the panel said it would investigate Hwang's other landmark papers, which include a 2004 Science article on the first cloned human embryos and an August 2005 paper in Nature on the first cloned dog. Both journals are reviewing all the work. Hwang, a veterinarian, maintains his science is sound and tests will prove his case. He did admit last week to "fatal errors" in the May report and asked Science to withdraw the paper, saying that, at the time of publication, his team had created only eight cell lines, but three more were created later. The panel said today it found no records of two of the other stem-cell lines Hwang claims to have created. Four others died from contamination, and another three were in a nurturing stage so were not yet full stem-cell lines. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...72154&t=TS_Home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nand Posted December 25, 2005 Share Posted December 25, 2005 I just checked my mail. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8515 interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davemania Posted December 30, 2005 Share Posted December 30, 2005 It amazes me how Hwang think he could've gotten away with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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