SKorean wolf cloning team under investigation
Seoul,
Apr
9:
South
Korean
scientists,
disgraced
for
massive
fraud
in
stem
cell
studies,
are
being
investigated
for
possibly
manipulating
data
in
a
paper
on
producing
the
world's
first
cloned
wolves,
officials
today
said.
''We
will
investigate
suspected
data
inflation
to
increase
the
cloning
success
rate,''
Kuk
Young,
chief
of
Seoul
National
University's
office
of
research
affairs,
told
reporters.
The
team,
once
led
by
Hwang
Woo-suk
that
was
also
at
the
forefront
of
embryonic
stem
cell
studies,
is
not
being
investigated
for
fraud
in
the
actual
wolf
cloning.
Lee
Byung-chun,
a
professor
who
helped
lead
the
wolf
cloning,
has
asked
the
periodical
''Cloning
and
Stem
Cells''
to
issue
a
correction
on
the
paper,
but
denied
data
was
intentionally
massaged,
Kuk
said.
The
team,
which
produced
Snuppy
the
world's
first
cloned
dog
in
2005,
last
month
showed
off
the
two
Korean
wolves
named
Snuwolf
and
Snuwolffy
that
were
born
about
a
year
and
a
half
ago.
A
member
of
the
team,
who
asked
not
to
be
identified,
told
Reuters
that
it
had
taken
a
long
time
to
find
a
publisher
because
of
the
team's
involvement
in
the
previous
fraud
over
stem
cell
research.
Hwang
and
other
members
have
since
left
their
posts
at
the
university
after
his
team
fabricated
data
in
two
papers
on
human
embryonic
stem
cells
that
have
since
been
debunked.
Hwang
is
facing
trial
on
fraud,
embezzlement
and
violating
the
country's
bioethics
laws.
Independent
testing
did,
however,
confirm
that
Snuppy
was
a
clone.
In
December,
the
team
said
it
had
cloned
three
more
Afghan
hounds
and
improved
the
efficiency
of
its
cloning
methods.
Reuters