By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter


A team of scientists organized by the Seoul National University will announce as early as Thursday the outcome of its initial investigations into allegations that Prof. Hwang Woo-suk fabricated his landmark stem cell research.

Key points are whether or not Hwang succeeded in cloning stem cells and, if so, how many _ data disputed by Hwang’s colleague, Roh Sung-il.

Roh, an estranged former colleague of Hwang and head of Mizmedi Womem’s Hospital which provided eggs for Hwang’s research, Tuesday stepped up his offensive against Hwang, accusing him of using more human eggs for his cloning research than he said.

Roh’s accusation was the latest in a series that cast doubt on Hwang’s research.

Roh said that Hwang received around 1,200 eggs obtained from 86 donors for his papers published in the U.S. journal Science in 2004 and 2005, and 900 to 1000 of the eggs were provided for the 2005 research. Hwang said that he used only 185 eggs for the 2005 research while not mentioning the whereabouts of the rest, Roh said.

``I do not know the exact number of the eggs we gave to Hwang, but it was between 900 and 1,000,’’ Roh said during a press conference held at his clinic. ``In Hwang’s paper, there is no explanation of what had happened to the remaining 700 eggs we provided. Seoul National University should find out about that.’’

Hwang and his staff were unavailable for comment,.

The panel’s investigation of Hwang’s work has speeded up since it started on Sunday.

``Hwang is actively cooperating with the inquiry and we will be able to do a DNA fingerprint test of the frozen stem cells in two or three days,’’ the committee said in a statement. It also said that it had defrosted the stem cells used in Hwang’s 2005 paper and is nurturing them.

Roh also agreed to be questioned by the panel on Wednesday and to provide the remaining egg samples by Friday.

Meanwhile, a group of scientist alleged that Roh also fabricated photos of stem cells for his own papers submitted to international journals.

The claim, posted on the Web site of the state-backed Biological Research Information Center (bric.postech.ac.kr), showed that photos from different human embryonic stem cells published in three science journals overlap each other. The scientists said the papers were published in Reproduction in Dec. 2004, in Molecules and Cells this February and in Biology of Reproduction in Dec. 2003.

The three papers in question were co-authored by Roh, Kim Sun-jong and Yoon Hyun-soo of Hanyang University, who were also members of Hwang’s research team.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr