Disgraced stem cell scientist was likely aware of research fraud

SEOUL, Sep 19: Co-defendants of Hwang Woo-suk told a Seoul court today that the disgraced stem cell scientist was likely aware of research fraud but they were too intimidated by their highly praised mentor to correct mistakes.

Hwang, once celebrated as a national hero, was indicted in May on charges of fraud and embezzlement after prosecutors said he was the mastermind of a scheme to make it look like his team had produced stem cell lines through cloning human embryos.

''I was aware at the time of the possibility that data were being manipulated,'' said Lee Byeong-chun, a professor at Seoul National University. Lee was a key member of Hwang's team that produced two landmark papers, which were later debunked.

Lee told a court he could not muster the courage at the time to question Hwang.

Another scientist said he replaced a stem cell line in the team's 2004 project with a cultivated cell line from a fertilised embryo when the team was faced with a devastating failure in growing stem cell lines using cloned human embryos.

''It's breaking up,'' Kim Sun-jong quoted Hwang as saying as he observed sample stem cell lines that were dying.

Hwang saw the failure and walked out of the lab looking dejected, Kim said.

But Hwang never asked the team to look into the cause of the failure. He also asked no questions when the dying cell line was replaced with a fresh, developed one the following day, Kim said.

Prosecutors have said the cells in the experiment came from a Seoul fertility clinic and were not produced by the methods Hwang's team said they had used.

''Hwang was elated, and everyone cheered,'' Kim said, adding he was under pressure for failing to cultivate the cell lines but could not confess to what he had done.

At previous hearings, Hwang apologised for the fraud in his team's work, admitted to taking part in a small portion of it but said he was duped by junior researchers into believing the team had made breakthroughs.

An investigation panel at Seoul National University, where Hwang once worked, said his team fabricated key data in the two papers on embryonic stem cells that were once heralded.

Prosecutors have charged Hwang with misusing and embezzling 2.8 billion won (2.9 million dollar) in state funds and private donations as well as violating bioethics laws in procuring human eggs for his research.

Misuse of state funds carries a penalty of up to 10 years' jail, while violating the bioethics law can lead to three years' imprisonment, prosecutors have said.

Hwang's research had raised hopes because it seemed to fulfil a promise of embryonic stem cell studies where tissue could be grown to repair damaged bodies and cure illnesses such as diabetes and severe spinal cord injuries.

The two landmark papers from his team were a 2004 report on producing the first cloned human embryos for research and a 2005 paper on producing patient-specific embryonic stem cells.

REUTERS DKA HT1600