Korean cloning paper a fake?

The Associated Press reports that a doctor who provided human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said in a Thursday broadcast that the South Korean scientist admitted that most of the stem cells produced for a key research paper were faked.

Roh Sung-il, chairman of the board at Mizmedi Hospital, told KBS television that Hwang had agreed to ask the journal Science to withdraw the paper, published in June to international acclaim. Roh was one of the co-authors of the article that detailed how individual stem cell colonies were created for 11 patients through cloning.

Roh also told MBC television that Hwang had pressured a former scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies.

Reuters also reports that

The daily newspaper Hankyoreh and three South Korean television networks quoted Roh Sung-il as saying that he, stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk and another co-author of the landmark 2005 Science paper on tailor-made stem cells had notified the journal that they were withdrawing the paper.

"Professor Hwang admitted to fabrication," Roh said in an appearance on MBC television. Roh, a specialist in fertility studies, was referring to a meeting he had with Hwang earlier in the day.

last minute