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The discredited cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday apologized to the nation for faking his stem cell research results but continued to blame others for sabotaging his work. A recent internal probe by Seoul National University found no evidence that patient-matched stem cells Hwang claims to have cloned ever existed, but the scientist in a press conference Thursday insisted staff at the MizMedi fertility clinic, a research partner, swapped the cloned stem cell lines with ordinary in-vitro fertilized samples.
Hwang in effect played down the fabrications in two articles published in 2004 and 2005 papers on stem cells derived from cloned embryos and his role in faking data. In a partial climb-down from earlier claims, he said his team had world-class technology in creating cloned blastocysts, an earlier stage in embryonic development.
Speaking at the Korea Press Center, Hwang admitted some of the allegations including inflating data to make it look as if the team created 11 stem cell lines and paying woman for donating their eggs. But his insistence that the team has what he calls the source technology to grow stem cells from cloned embryos and that the evidence was switched flies in the face of the SNU panel¡¯s findings released Tuesday.
Hwang portrayed himself as a dupe in the scandal, saying far from ordering team members to fake results, he merely read research data submitted by members but did not check their authenticity. He also criticized the drift of the SNU panel¡¯s report saying the absence of stem cells did not mean they never existed.
Hwang said the finding by the panel that a stem cell documented in the discredited 2004 paper was derived from an embryo grown by parthenogenesis, i.e. from the egg alone, made no sense unless someone at MizMedi switched the cells.
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Disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk looks through the front door as he meets investigators at his home in Nonhyun-dong, Seoul on Thursday. The Seoul District Prosecutors' Office is investigating Hwang¡¯s allegation that someone maliciously swapped patient-specific stem cells he claims to have produced and his suspected misuse of research funds./Yonhap
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He fingered MizMedi researchers Park Jong-hyeok and Kim Seon-jong, who were charged with cultivating the blastocysts, for maliciously swapping the stem cells and keeping him in the dark. His team created more than 100 cloned blastocysts and would have gone on to cultivate them into stem cells had they not been switched or destroyed, he insisted.
In a surprise revelation, Hwang also said he succeeded in cloning two wolves, which would be even more remarkable than his creation of the world¡¯s first cloned dog -- an achievement the SNU panel has acknowledged. He said he created stem cells by performing somatic cell nuclear transfer on gnotobiotic miniature pigs, whose organs can be transplanted into humans, saying given the chance his team could produce stem cells in just six months.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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