Shock resignation from stem cell researcher

Researcher Hwang Woo-suk apologised today and resigned from a South Korean university after the school said he fabricated results in stem-cell research that had raised hopes of new cures for hard-to-treat diseases.

“I sincerely apologise to the people for creating a shock and disappointment,” Hwang told reporters as he was leaving his office at Seoul National University. “With an apologising heart ... I step down as professor of Seoul National University.”

However, Hwang still maintained that he had produced the technology to create patient-matched stem cells as he claimed to do in a May article in the journal Science.

“I emphasise that patient-specific stem cells belong to South Korea and you are going to see this,” said Hwang, a veterinarian.

Earlier today, a panel of Seoul National University experts said Hwang had faked results of at least nine of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created in the May paper – the first confirmation of allegations that have cast a shadow over all his purported breakthroughs in cloning and stem-cell technology.

“This kind of error is a grave act that damages the foundation of science,” the panel said.

The South Korean government, which has strongly supported Hwang and designated him the country’s first “top scientist,” said today that it was “miserable” over the reported results of the investigation.

The government will consider ending Hwang’s research funding, but still supports other similar research, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a statement.

The university panel said today that it found that “the laboratory data for 11 stem cell lines that were 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 match 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, but 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’s dean of research affairs, Roe Jung-hye told a news conference, adding that Hwang ”somewhat admits t this.”

The panel said DNA tests expected to be completed within a few days would confirm if the remaining two stem-cell lines it had found were actually successfully cloned from a patient.

In light of the revelations, the panel said it would now also investigate Hwang’s other landmark papers – which include another Science article in 2004 on the world’s first cloned human embryos, and an August 2005 paper in the journal Nature on the first-ever cloned dog. The journals already are reviewing all the work.

Hwang has already asked Science to withdraw the May paper, citing “fatal errors,” and claiming he had creating only some of the 11 stem-cell colonies at the time of publication but completed the work later.

The university panel said today that 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 the nurturing stage and hadn’t yet become full stem-cell lines.

Hwang’s article this year had also been viewed as significant for his efficiency in cloning the stem-cell lines, claiming to use just 185 human eggs to create custom-made embryonic stem cells for the 11 patients.

But Roe said the investigation had “found that there have been a lot more eggs used than were reported” and were investigating the exact number.