S. Korean university regrets fake claims

SEOUL, South Korea --South Korea's top university on Wednesday apologized for the scandal over stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk's faked research, calling it a blemish on the country that embraced him as a national hero.

The government said it would withdraw Hwang's "top scientist" title -- an honor created especially for him in the wake of purported breakthroughs that raised hopes for using stem cells to develop new treatments of diseases from Alzheimer's to diabetes.

Seoul National University's apology came a day after its investigative panel confirmed that Hwang faked all of his human stem cell research, including his landmark 2004 claim in the journal Science that he cloned a human embryo and extracted stem cells from it.

"I, as the president of the university, sincerely apologize to the public," Chung Un-chan, the head of the state-run institution, told a nationally televised news conference.

He called Hwang's fraud "an unwashable blemish on the whole scientific community as well as our country" and a "criminal act in academia."

Chung said he would seek punishment for Hwang and other researchers on his team.

The government said it would launch an audit of national funds provided for Hwang's research. Last year, he was granted as much as $3 million in annual funding for five years.

Media reports have said prosecutors are likely to investigate possible misappropriation of government money used in his research.

Hwang and his research team "did not have any proof to show that cloned embryonic stem cells were ever created," the university investigating panel said in its final report Tuesday.

The university cast doubt on Hwang's claim to have cloned a human embryo as reported in the 2004 paper, saying there was a high possibility it could have merely been a mutated egg, which could appear to have similar qualities of an embryo.

Last month, a devastating report by the university concluded that Hwang fabricated another article published in Science last year claiming to have produced 11 stem cell lines genetically matched to patients.

Hwang has made no public appearances since last month, when he said he would resign his faculty position. The university says he has yet to formally offer to step down. His whereabouts are unknown.

Hwang was once dubbed "The Pride of Korea" for his purported research breakthroughs, including the creation of the world's first cloned dog last year.

The university on Tuesday upheld that the claim about the cloned dog. That achievement was not regarded as important as the cloning of human embryos, however, because various animals had already been cloned.