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New doubts emerge about stem cell pioneer's research

"We find a significant part of the DNA fingerprinting data is inexplicable."

Seoul National University faculty members

A new round of criticism has broken out in South Korea over the accuracy of a recent article that reported a dramatic advance in human stem cell research.

In the June 17 article, Hwang Woo-suk, a veterinary researcher at Seoul National University, reported that he had developed embryonic stem cell colonies from 11 patients.

The article, published in the journal Science, was hailed as a major step toward the goal of treating patients suffering from many serious diseases with their own, regenerated tissues.

But Hwang's research, though praised by the Seoul government, faces mounting criticism from some South Korean scientists.

The newest questions about the paper concern DNA fingerprint tests carried out to prove that the embryonic stem cell colonies were indeed derived from the patient in question. The test, demanded by referees for Science, was necessary because cell colonies often get mixed up or overgrown by other cells in even the best laboratories.

Usually any two DNA fingerprint traces will have peaks of different heights and alignment and different background noise. But in several cases the pairs of traces in the Science article seem identical in all three properties, suggesting that they are the same trace and not, as represented, two independent ones.

Monica Bradford, the deputy editor of Science, said that the journal had asked Hwang for an explanation and that experts probably needed to examine the original data in Hwang's possession before any conclusions could be drawn.

The new charges have also attracted attention in South Korea. Thirty faculty members at Seoul National University wrote on Wednesday to the university president, Chung Un-chan, saying that, as experts in the life sciences, "We find a significant part of the DNA fingerprinting data is inexplicable."

They asked Chung to create a committee to investigate possible misconduct and added, "We are extremely worried that, by keeping silent, we are endangering the international credibility of the Korean scientific community, which in turn will cause irreversible damage to our country."

The University of Pittsburgh, where Hwang's American co-author, Gerald Schatten, is based, has asked its office that investigates research misconduct to look into this and other problems with the Science article.

Earlier this week the critics noted that several photographs, issued online by Science as a supplement to the June 17 article, were duplicates of one another, though they ostensibly showed 11 different cell colonies. But the duplication appeared to have an innocent explanation. The editors of Science announced that the originally submitted manuscript had 11 different photos and that the duplicates were submitted later, presumably by accident, after a request for higher-resolution copies.

Hwang did not respond to an e-mail inquiry sent Friday. He has been hospitalized with an ulcer, said Lorenz Studer, a stem cell specialist at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York.

Dr. Arthur Levine, dean of the University of Pittsburgh medical school, said Schatten was a scientist of stature and had contributed ideas to Hwang, but that "discussion doesn't ordinarily eventuate in senior authorship." He added that he knew for certain that Schatten "must be deeply regretting" having accepted the co-authorship.
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