Prosecutors Investigate Hwang’s Team Researchers

The special investigation team of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` office, investigating the falsified paper of professor Hwang Woo-suk’s research team at Seoul National University, questioned researcher Kwon Dae-ki (27) yesterday and examined the case in which he tried to culture later on the stem cells which reproduce the patient-specific somatic cells along with another researcher, Kim Seon-jong (34), from September to December last year.

The prosecution judged that it was highly possible that the two researchers, Kim and Kwon, intervened in falsifying the paper despite knowing that the stem cell was not cultured in early 2005 when the paper for Science was prepared.

The prosecution also investigated and discovered that professor Hwang’s research team conducted an experiment injecting number 1 and 2 stem cells, cultured by nuclear replacement from 100 laboratory rats between March and August 2005, into 50 laboratory rats with damaged spinal cords. The prosecution has started analyzing DNA fingerprints in the gene analysis lab of the Supreme Public Prosecutor`s Office upon securing the 10 laboratory rats injected with the stem cells.

It appears professor Hwang’s research team conducted these experiments to identify the effect of injecting the stem cell into the laboratory rats which are hindered of athletic ability resulting from damaged spinal cords.

The prosecution investigated four co-authors – Kwon dae-ki, Park eul-seon, Lee yoo-jin and Yoo young-jin – regarding the preparation of the 2004 and 2005 Science papers.

The prosecution investigated the legality of the egg procurement procedures of professor Hwang’s research team, calling in nine people including six members of Institutional Review Board of Hanyang Medical School.

Tae-Hoon Lee jefflee@donga.com