By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter


Science, the U.S. journal that published Hwang Woo-suk’s research on stem cells twice, Wednesday said it would investigate the legitimacy of his 2004 paper on cloned human embryonic stem cells.

In an e-mail announcement, Science spokeswoman Barbara Rice said the journal will examine ``every aspect of papers from the Hwang lab, in light of the questions that have been raised, both about the 2004 and 2005 papers.’’

``So far there has been no substantiated charges. Science will act expeditiously and forcefully when the facts are known,’’ she added.

As Science decided to review the 2004 paper, all three of Hwang’s landmark papers _ two on cloning human stem cells and the other on dog clones _ are currently under investigation.

Hwang became a cloning superstar by announcing back-to-back breakthroughs of establishing cloned human stem cells in 2004 and patient-specific stem cells this May through Science.

In August, Hwang said his team cloned two dogs for the first time in history, the article featured by Nature. The British-based weekly has also launched an investigation of the paper.

Hwang already asked for the retraction of the 2005 Science paper after confessing that he had falsified data. However, the 52-year-old veterinarian insisted his team did create patient-specific stem cells and the 2004 paper is authentic.

Yet, questions flared up over the 2004 paper as the nation’s young scientists alleged this week that it contains photos that appeared in an unrelated article.

If his 2004 paper is discredited, it would mean that Hwang has no source technology to create cloned human embryonic stem cells and the daunting hurdles to therapeutic cloning still remain.

Part of the truth is expected to come to the light on Friday when an investigation panel at Seoul National University (SNU) discloses results of the first-phased probe, which will show whether Hwang’s team really extracted patient-specific stem cells.

Toward that end, the nine-member ad-hoc committee Wednesday interviewed two senior authors of the 2005 paper _ SNU Prof. Moon Shin-yong and Mizmedi Women’s Hospital head Roh Sung-il _ as well as MBC producer Han Hak-soo who ignited the stem cell authenticity scandal.

In the interim, a new allegation erupted by a local newspaper that Prof. Gerald P. Schatten at the University of Pittsburgh, an estranged former colleague of Hwang, requested $200,000 from the Seoul cloning team to establish a branch of the World Stem Cell Hub in the United States.

The World Stem Cell Hub was set up in Seoul in October with the goal of facilitating international cooperation in stem cell research and a couple of overseas branches were planned in the U.S. and Britain.

The stem cell bank, however, said it neither received the requests from Schatten nor provided funds to the embryologist who is also being investigated by his university due to the stem cell scandal.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr