An already disgraced scientist lied about all of the stem cell lines he claimed were matched to different patients through cloning, investigating researchers said in a new jolt to the shattered reputation of Hwang Woo-suk.
Thursday’s announcement all but ends the fraud investigation into one of three major cloning breakthroughs claimed by the one-time scientific superstar and national hero. Probes of Hwang’s two other groundbreaking experiments are still under way at Seoul National University in South Korea where he worked before resigning last week.
The latest news was one more disappointment to the scientific world, which had viewed Hwang’s achievements as holding great promise for treating people with a variety of ailments, from spinal cord injuries to Parkinson’s disease.
In the experiment deemed fraudulent, Hwang had claimed in a paper published in May in the journal Science that he had created 11 colonies of human embryonic stem cells genetically matched to patients.
An investigative panel at the university reported last week that Hwang had faked the research on nine of the stem cell lines. On Thursday, it confirmed he also fabricated his research for the two remaining cell lines as well. The panel is expected to wrap up all work on that case by next month.
