A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to discredited scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday, concluding that his once-celebrated team provided no data to prove a claim they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells.The panel will also review Hwang’s 2004 paper on creating the first cloned human embryos for research and a claim he produced the world’s first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.Hwang did receive some good news when a DNA lab in Seoul, which is not part of the panel’s investigation, said its tests indicated that Snuppy was an actual clone. But that was the only upbeat news in an otherwise sombre day for the scientist.‘‘It is the panel’s judgment that Professor Hwang’s team does not have the scientific data to prove that they (patient-specific stem cells) were made,’’ said Roe Jung-hye, Chief of Seoul National University’s research office.The same investigation panel said last week that a 2005 paper produced by Hwang’s team contained data that was deliberately fabricated and had undermined the fundamentals of science. It said the team may have produced only two stem cell lines, not 11 as the authors of the landmark paper had claimed.Roe told reporters the final two lines, which could have proved the fundamental findings of Hwang’s team, were not produced in Hwang’s lab but at a Seoul hospital.The panel has asked three laboratories to conduct DNA tests on cells that were part of work by Hwang’s team to see if they were stem cell lines with DNA that matches that of the donors.Experts say the stem cell case is fast developing into one of the biggest scientific frauds in recent history —Reuters
