South Korean Panel Debunks Scientist's Stem Cell Claims
Fraud Finding Is Another Setback in Cloned Embryo Research

By Anthony Faiola and Rick Weiss
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

SEOUL, Jan. 10 -- An academic panel investigating South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo Suk concluded Tuesday that the embattled researcher's fraudulent experiments reach back further than previously known and encompass the most seminal of his so-called successes: the first creation of stem cells from cloned human embryos.

The new determination that the results of those experiments were largely falsified and that Hwang never obtained stem cells from cloned embryos discredits what had appeared to be one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs of the decade. The deception means that the highly touted field of embryonic stem cell research is years behind where scientists thought it was.

Hwang's claim, published in a landmark 2004 paper in the journal Science, heralded the stunning prospect of human cloning and the promise of using stem cell therapy to treat incurable diseases.

But the findings of a month-long investigation into Hwang's results by an eight-member peer review panel at Seoul National University, where most of the research was conducted, indicated that DNA studies on preserved stem cells did not match those from the published study and that they were not cloned human embryonic stem cells. The same panel had already determined that studies published in 2005, in which Hwang claimed to have made 11 stem cell lines matched to patients, were fakes.

The DNA testing of the purported embryonic stem cells from the 2004 publication indicated that they resulted from an entirely different and medically less promising process known as parthenogenesis, the growth and development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg using electrical stimulation or other means. Hwang had repeatedly dismissed speculation that the 2004 stem cells were developed through parthenogenesis.

And although the panel concluded that there is evidence to suggest that Hwang has successfully created some cloned human embryos -- a feat that has been achieved by others -- there is no evidence he was able to retrieve stem cells from them.

"Hwang basically lied to the Korean people and scientific world," said Chung Myung Hee, chairman of the peer review panel. "Hwang and those who participated in the fabrication of the paper should be severely punished."

The panel did vindicate Hwang's team on at least one major contention, deeming as legitimate the claim last year that it had produced the first cloned dog. That decision was reached after DNA testing on the dog, an Afghan hound, and its cell donor.

Medical researchers in the United States, reacting to what they described as one of the most significant scientific frauds in history, said they would now resume their own attempts to produce stem cells from cloned embryos -- widely considered a key to making stem cells more medically useful.

Until the growing questions about the research, Hwang and his team had been credited with putting South Korea at the center of the emerging international field of stem cell science. Their reported breakthroughs had been seen as offering new hope for patients with conditions including Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries who could benefit from regenerative stem cell therapy. The research also held out promise for the cultivation of diseased tissue in labs for testing with new drugs.

The results from the Seoul university review follow disclosures Dec. 29 by the same panel that Hwang's team had fabricated a follow-up article, published in May 2005. In that article, the researchers claimed to have created 11 human embryonic stem cell colonies said to be exact genetic matches of patients who might have benefited from the cells, which have the capacity to repair damaged tissues. Independent DNA tests, however, failed to find evidence that any of the stem cells had been made from clones, discrediting what had been considered one of the major scientific discoveries of 2005.

The technique of producing stem cells from clones, somatic cell nuclear transfer, had already been accomplished in mice, but Hwang's research was the only claim of mastering the technique with human cells. The findings of falsification in both cases were apparently so conclusive that one university official said retesting of the data was not being considered because "it would be a waste of time and money," according to the semiofficial Yonhap news service.

Hwang, 53, a specialist in veterinary medicine and animal cloning, had risen to the top echelon of scientific circles over the past two years and was hailed as a national hero. This weekend, however, the public prosecutor's office ordered Hwang and 10 of his top associates to remain in the country and discussed possible charges against them.

Although Hwang's initial research was conducted largely without public funds, his team's reports brought $30 million in official grants that propelled his work forward. At least $50,000 of that money, according to a report by the Korea Times, went to two South Korean researchers living in the United States who allegedly helped falsify the 2005 article in Science, which is set to be retracted by the journal.

Hwang's research has been questioned publicly since November, after the team's sole American collaborator abruptly withdrew from his 20-month association with Hwang, citing unspecified ethical concerns. A barrage of allegations ensued, including charges that two female researchers in Hwang's lab were pressured to donate eggs for research; such donations are notoriously difficult to obtain.

Reached this weekend by telephone, Hwang declined to comment. He has maintained that the errors discovered so far have resulted from technical mishaps attributable to his younger researchers, but has yet to provide a full accounting of how such gross errors could have occurred. Most of his associates had stuck by him, but in recent days, several of them have said that the team's results were manipulated and exaggerated or that Hwang had lied to the public.

Editors at Science magazine said Monday that they were proceeding to retract the 2005 article about the 11 cell lines and would consider doing the same for the 2004 article after they saw the final report from Seoul. Science's editor in chief, Donald Kennedy of Stanford University, said the editorial board was studying whether review procedures for articles needed to be changed.

"We have to look carefully so we can learn what we have to learn about how to increase our vigilance about this kind of thing," Kennedy said. "It's going to take a while, but we are thoroughly committed to that process."

Robert Lanza, medical director of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., said his firm was about to resume efforts to produce stem cells from cloned human embryos. "The race is back on and the United States has a second chance to do it right and win," he said.

The company was very close to succeeding in that endeavor, Lanza said, when the information on Hwang's research came out in 2004, drying up the company's pipeline of private investment and its supply of eggs from donors.

Weiss reported from Washington. Special correspondent Joohee Cho in Seoul contributed to this report.