By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter



Choi Seong-ho

The historic paper of professor Hwang Woo-suk at Seoul National University on patient-specific stem cells may be false, according to a producer at Korean TV station MBC.
Producer Choi Seong-ho who is in charge of the MBC investigative program ``PD Notebook’’ Wednesday said by telephone that he has material evidence to prove Hwang’s paper has problems.

``We plan to air the content sometime this month, which will raise questions about the authenticity of Hwang’s paper. The truth will be brought to light then,’’ Choi said.

He refused to give details but rebuffed recent reports that ``PD Notebook’’ would accuse Hwang of having deceived the world with false customized stem cell lines that came from Mizmedi Women’s Clinic.

Mizmedi is a Seoul-based infertility clinic that has provided eggs to Hwang’s team. The clinic recently came under fire after admitting it paid donors for eggs, which were used by Hwang’s team for research.

``That is not the main topic and we will not deal with that issue in the upcoming broadcast,’’ Choi said.

``PD Notebook’’ has already questioned the integrity of Hwang’s research by claiming last month that Hwang had obtained eggs from his junior staffers for the stem cell research a couple of years ago.

At a press conference last week, Hwang acknowledged the report is true even though he did not know of the in-house egg donations at the time.

Taking responsibility for the scandal, the 52-year-old resigned from all posts and disappeared. He has yet to return to his lab at Seoul National University.

Hwang is an international cloning superstar with back-to-back breakthroughs, establishing first cloned human embryonic stem cells in 2003 and customized stem cells this year. Both feats were featured in Science, the U.S.-based journal.

Choi also hinted Science did not sufficiently examine the authenticity of Hwang’s paper on genetically tailored stem cell batches, printed as a cover story by the illustrious peer-reviewed weekly in May.

``Science cannot do everything. Our program will also shed light on that (the review process by Science),’’ Choi said.

He added everything will become clear after his team televises the program. Choi said he is sure of his case because his team has delved into it for longer than six months.

In response, Hwang’s team members such as professor Lee Jeong-ryul at Seoul National University flatly downplayed the claim.

``The experiment was reviewed and confirmed by Science through very strict processes. If we cannot believe it, what other journals can we believe?’’ Lee said.

Other neutral embryologists like Park Se-pill, at the Seoul-based institute Maria Biotech, concur. In 2000, Park harvested stem cell lines from frozen human embryos for the third time in history.

``The doubts that Hwang does not have customized stem cell lines are rapidly fading away. Then, what can trigger debate on the genuineness of Hwang’s paper?’’ Park asked.

In fact, Hwang mentioned Science’s review process in the May article on the customized stem cells, which are expected to open the door to grappling with many degenerative diseases including diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s

``After we disclosed establishment of embryonic stem cells in 2004 through Science, many other top-notch journals asked us to print the next experiments on their pages, promising special treatment,’’ Hwang told a breakfast meeting with the press in Seoul on June 7.

``I showed some such requests to Science early this year, then they pledged an extraordinary process on the paper regarding patient-specific stem cells. Then the examination took just two months by five reviewers, much more than the general norm of two,’’ he said.

It typically took about a half year for globally renowned scientific journals to print a paper after receiving requests because of the long review processes.

Irrespective of the controversies involving Hwang’s study, the Korean government continues to support him.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office yesterday said it would designate the stem cell technologies as a core source technique of the nation, a measure geared toward financially helping Hwang’s team gain patents in many countries for the stem cell know-how.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr