SEOUL, South Korea - A former colleague of South Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk said Saturday he will test laboratory samples to determine whether all the stem cell lines in Hwang's research were faked.
Roh Sung Il, whose name appears on the scientific article that made the research findings known, said he wasn't aware of the paper until it appeared in the journal Science in May.
"Usually a paper is circulated between co-authors before it gets published," Roh said. "But due to security concerns, the paper was written just between Professor Hwang and Professor Gerald Schatten," a University of Pittsburgh researcher who worked closely with Hwang before severing ties over ethics lapses in Hwang's research.
Hwang on Friday acknowledged "fatal errors" in the article and said he has asked Science to withdraw the paper, which purported to show how his team created custom-made embryonic stem cells for 11 patients.
In a nationally televised news conference, the Seoul National University scientist admitted there were only eight stem cell lines when he submitted the paper for review, but that his team later created three more. He added that tests on his stem cell lines will prove his team "has the source technology to produce them."
Roh, who has said nine of the 11 stem cell lines were fabricated, said Saturday he would conduct his own test to determine whether the other two are also fake.
Samples of the two stem cell lines that Hwang's team created and stored at the Mizmedi Hospital were in the nurturing stage, and tests will prove "if they are patient-specific stem cells from cloned embryos," Roh said.
"But to be honest, I am not sure if these samples are the same ones at Seoul National University," said Roh, chairman of the board at the hospital.
At Friday's news conference, Hwang claimed some of the stem cell colonies his team has created have been replaced by those created by Roh's hospital, and called for an investigation. Roh said the allegation is meant to pin the fraud on another ex-colleague of Hwang's who works at the hospital.
The researcher, Kim Sun Jong, told South Korean media that Hwang had ordered him to fabricate data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies, instead of just two.
Hwang had become a national hero in South Korea for his stunning scientific claims, which also include the world's first cloned human embryos and the world's first cloned dog.
Last month, Hwang admitted that, after more than a year of denial, he had violated international ethics guidelines by using eggs from two scientists in his lab.
