SEOUL, South Korea -- A doctor who provided human eggs for research by cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk said in a broadcast Thursday 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.
Roh said nine of the embryonic stem cell lines Hwang claimed were cloned in the paper were faked, and the authenticity of the other two was unknown.
Roh told MBC he heard from Hwang on Thursday morning that "there were no embryonic stem cells" because all colonies have since died in the lab.
Hwang did not answer his phone and researchers from his lab at Seoul National University could not immediately be reached for comment.
Hwang was staying at the university's hospital, spokesman Yang Sung-ki said Thursday evening. The researcher has been undergoing treatment there for stress since last week, the spokesman said.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, in the Philippines for a state visit, called for caution regarding the reports on Hwang's work.
"Let's watch the situation," Roh said, according to Choi In-ho, the president's vice spokesman.
University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten has already asked that Science remove him as the senior author of the report, citing questions about the paper's accuracy.
Seoul National University announced this week it would conduct an internal probe into Hwang's research.
Hwang's team has admitted it made an error that led to duplicated photos accompanying the article, but editors of Science have so far stood by the paper's findings.
