A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to scientist Hwang Woo-suk yesterday, concluding his once-celebrated team provided no data to prove a claim they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells.

The findings were another mark of disgrace for a man once heralded as a national hero for his pioneering work on stem cell and cloning research, who now faces possible criminal charges.

The panel will now review Hwang's 2004 paper on creating the first cloned human embryos for research and a claim he produced the world's first cloned dog an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

Hwang did receive a bit of good news when a DNA lab in Seoul, which is not part of the panel's investigation, said testing they performed had indicated Snuppy was an actual clone. But that was a small ray of light on another sombre day for the scientist.

"It is the panel's judgment that Professor Hwang's team does not have the scientific data to prove that they (patient-specific stem cells) were made," said Roe Jung-hye, chief of Seoul National University's research office.

The same investigation panel said last week that a 2005 paper produced by Hwang's team contained data that was intentionally fabricated and had undermined the fundamentals of science.

It said the team may have produced only two stem cell lines, not 11 as the authors of the landmark paper had claimed.

Roe told reporters yesterday the final two lines that could have proved the fundamental findings of Hwang's team were not produced in Hwang's lab, but instead at a Seoul hospital.

"The findings of three labs showed the number two and number three stem cell lines that needed confirmation with regard to the 2005 paper did not match with patient tissue cells and were found to be fertilised-egg stem cells of MizMedi Hospital," Roe said.

The news sent biotech shares lower on the Seoul bourse.

The panel has asked three laboratories to conduct DNA tests on cells that were part of work by Hwang's team to see if they were stem cell lines with DNA that matches that of the donors.

Criminal investigation

Experts say the stem cell case is developing into one of the biggest incidents of scientific fraud in recent history: the next questions will be how was Hwang's team able to commit the fraud and just how many people were involved.

The South Korean Government spent tens of millions of dollars to fund Hwang's research and used him in promotional material as a symbol of the country's advances in cutting-edge technologies.

Just two months ago, President Roh Moo-hyun opened a World Stem Cell Hub which was billed as a project to put the country at the forefront of the field.

Prosecutors have said Hwang could face a criminal probe for misappropriation of state funds if his work is proved fraudulent.

Hwang resigned from his post at the university last week and apologised. But he has insisted that patient-tailored embryonic stem cells are South Korean technology and it would be confirmed.

Hwang's work had been touted as having fulfilled a basic promise of embryonic stem cell studies, namely that one day genetically matched tissues could be transplanted in a patient to cure diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's.

"We believed that although the thesis may have been fabricated, there would at least be some hope that it was a new Korean technology. The announcement today drove all those hopes away and has made me feel emotionally drained," said Oh Il-hwan, a professor at Catholic University Medical school in Seoul.

Laurie Zoloth, a bioethics professor at Northwestern University near Chicago, said the impact of yesterday's findings would leave a lasting mark on scientific research.

"It seems clearly to have been a deliberate fabrication from the very beginning," she said. "It is a sad day for science."

Source: China Daily