News media reports from South Korea are quoting a key researcher in the country's groundbreaking stem cell cloning program who says the head of the project now admits that much of his recent work was faked.
Korean television stations and newspapers quote Roh Sung-Il as saying his colleague, renowned cloning scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, has asked for his acclaimed research paper to be retracted. There has been no public comment from Mr. Hwang.
Roh Sung-Il provided the human egg cells for the study published in the journal Science, but he now says nine of the 11 custom-made stem cell lines were faked. He also could not verify the authenticity of the other two.
The reported acknowledgment follows a series of allegations from other collaborators who cast doubt on the research. Hwang Woo-Suk has already acknowledged breaking ethics rules.
His recent study was initially seen as a landmark effort in developing stem cell lines that could one day cure a range of currently untreatable ailments.
Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP, Reuters.
