Cloning research doubted

2005-12-01 14:04

Seoul - Researchers with South Korea's cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk on Thursday rejected reports suggesting that some of his landmark research may have been faked.

A South Korean TV station confirmed it was working on a report that would challenge whether Hwang's work was genuine.

Last week MBC TV network reported that Hwang had used human eggs for his cloning experiments from members of his research team and others eggs used in his research had been paid for. Hwang had previously denied the allegations but admitted the truth two days after the programme was aired.

Now, the channel's investigative reporting programme, PD Notebook, is preparing to raise more serious allegations.

"As it has been widely reported, we are pursuing a new report focusing on the validity of Professor Hwang's study (on the cloned embryonic stem cells)," an MBC official working on the programme said.

Doubt over research ethics

Top executives of MBC, one of South Korea's three major TV networks, met with the programme's staff to "review" the information collected by the team concerning the authenticity of Hwang's work, he said.

"They have reached a conclusion that we have to take a very cautious approach to a new report on Hwang. Nothing has been decided as to whether we have to go ahead with it or not," he said.

The report last week on the origin of human eggs used by Hwang sparked international controversy over the groundbreaking team's ethical standards.

It also triggered a groundswell of patriotic support for Hwang and anger at MBC for hurting Hwang and damaging the country's international image.

Hwang admitted to ethical breaches and disappeared from public view after offering to resign from all his official positions.

Research discrepancies

According to reports in South Korean newspapers, MBC staff obtained samples of stem cells from Hwang's team, and had them checked against hair root cells from a patient to see if indeed there was a DNA match.

MBC officials declined to comment on the results but news reports said the DNA of the cells were not identical, indicating that there may be problems with Hwang's findings.

However, Hwang's team said the allegations made no sense, noting that their research had been thoroughly reviewed by international researchers.

"The experiment was reviewed and confirmed by Science through very strict processes, If we cannot believe it, what other journals can we believe," Lee Jyung-Ryul, a member of the team, was quoted as saying.

Donna Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science, also said on Monday that the journal has "no reason to question the validity" of Hwang's work.

Park Se-Pill, a renowned cloning expert here, backed Hwang's team, dismissing the possibility of Hwang's work being faked.

"It is absolutely impossible to cheat the whole world with the study, which involved tens of researchers," Park said.

- AFP