Investigators Secure Stem-Cell E-Mails

The Seoul Central District Public Prosecutor`s Office investigating the fabrication of stem-cell papers by Hwang Woo-suk’s research team said yesterday that it plans to investigate Hwang’s team and MizMedi Hospital researchers under subpoena from today.

The office’s special investigation team plans to summon researchers involved in 2004 and 2005 papers as informants this week and ask them how the paper fabrication happened.

A source at the prosecution said the team would begin the case by first checking up on the researchers, leaving Hwang and Roh Sung-il, the director of MizMedi Hospital, for the last stage of the investigation.

The prosecution will summon Seoul University’s researchers, including Kim Su, Park Seon-wu, and Kwon Hui-seon, and those who were in charge of teratoma experiments, including Lee Jeong-bok and Kim Jin-mi, to investigate suspicions over stem cell switching.

As soon as that phase of the investigation is completed, the prosecution plans to summon and investigate researchers Yu Young-jun, Kwon Dae-gi, and professor Yun Hyun-su of Hanyang Medical School, who are considered to be central to the case.

It has been reported that researcher Park Jong-Hyuk, who is staying in the U.S., said he would return and respond to investigators in earnest if a summons date for a return-home request is fixed.

Park said Yu Young-jun was an important person who could shed light on how the paper fabrication happened, in a phone conversation with Hwang on December 26.

Prosecutors secured e-mails and data handed over by the Seoul University’s investigation committee and are currently investigating them.

The source said that most of the e-mails had not been deleted and that clues about how the fabrication happened will come out.

Jin-Kyun Kil leon@donga.com