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Prof. Hwang Woo-suk appeared in Seoul Central Prosecutor‘s Office on March.2, 2006. (Yonhap News Agency)
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Hwang knew of stem cell switch as of October
Following a months-long investigation, prosecutors announced Friday that former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk oversaw the fabrication of data in articles published in 2004 and 2005 in the journal Science. During a nationally televised press conference, a spokesman for the prosecution said that investigators believe there were never any patient-specific stem cells, as the article claimed, and that researcher Kim Sun-jong switched stem cells at Dr. Hwang's lab with others he brought in from another hospital. The investigation's first focus was whether Dr. Hwang and his team of researchers ever created any patient-specific stem cells. A Seoul National University (SNU) inquiry last year did not confirm the existence of the cells described in the 2005 Science article, and prosecutors have concluded that none ever existed. When Dr. Hwang's stem cells failed to grow, Kim took stem cells from fertilized eggs and "cross planted" them at Dr. Hwang's lab. According to prosecutors, Kim felt pressured to do so because he wanted to impress Dr. Hwang. The SNU inquiry uncovered the fact that DNA fingerprints were falsified for the 2004 Science article, and prosecutors discovered Dr. Hwang specifically ordered the falsification of DNA test results. He also ordered researcher Park Jong-hyeok to send Pittsburgh University professor Gerald Schatten pictures of the wrong stem cells.One of the biggest questions in the case has been determining exactly when Dr. Hwang learned that the stem cells were fake. Prosecutors, who used lie detector tests during their interrogations, believe that Dr. Hwang was initially unaware of the fact that Kim had switched them. However, they concluded that by October of last year he knew that stem cells No. 2 and 3 were false, based on telephone conversations between the two men. Dr. Hwang once said he learned the truth only after he saw the analysis of the DNA fingerprint results on the cable news station YTN on November 18, 2005. Dr. Hwang will be charged with fraud, embezzlement, and violating life ethics laws, while Kim is being charged with "obstruction of business" and the "instigation of the destruction of evidence." Fellow researchers Lee Byung-cheon and Kang Seong-geun of SNU and Yun Hyeon-su of Hanyang University are to be prosecuted on fraud charges.
