The South Korean government yesterday withdrew honors awarded to disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk and six colleagues as his research was faked, officials said.
The decision was reached at a Cabinet meeeting presided over by Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, the officials at the Prime Minister's Office said.
Bogus
"The government decided to deprive Hwang and six others of the medals as their stem cell research was bogus," said Min Jin-Kee, an official in charge of decorations at the Prime Min-ister's Office.
The six included four Seoul National University professors, as well as the head of a private infertility hospital and a professor at Hanyang University.
They received medals in 2004 for their joint efforts in a paper published in the distinguised Science journal, in which the South Korean scientist claimed that his team had created stem cells from a cloned human embryo in a world first.
New treatments
Hwang's fortunes reached their peak last year when he claimed in a second Science article that he had paved the way for new treatments of incurable diseases such as diabetes by creating stem cells through cloning which would then not be rejected when inserted into a patient's body.
This reported success, however, could not be repeated by others, a key test for scientific method.
Hwang's research was then called into question after local scientists raised the possibility that the data and photos of cells used for the papers in 2004 and last year might have been fabricated.
Subsequently, an academic probe concluded in January that the two landmark papers were faked.
Fired
Seoul National University fired Hwang and suspended or cut salaries for six of his colleagues as the government deprived him of his title as the country's "Supreme Scientist No 1."
Hwang was indicted in May on fraud, embezzlement and ethical breaches. However, local prosecutors declined to ask for his detention.
Five other scientists were also indicted in connection with the bogus research and the disappearance of millions of dollars in research funds.
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