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Hwang affair
South Korean scientific misconduct scandal
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The Hwang affair,[1] or Hwang scandal,[2] or Hwanggate,[3] is a case of scientific misconduct and ethical issues surrounding a South Korean biologist, Hwang Woo-suk, who claimed to have created the first human embryonic stem cells by cloning in 2004.[4][5] Hwang and his research team at the Seoul National University reported in the journal Science that they successfully developed a somatic cell nuclear transfer method with which they made the stem cells. In 2005, they published again in Science the successful cloning of 11 person-specific stem cells using 185 human eggs.[6] The research was hailed as "a ground-breaking paper" in science. Hwang was elevated as "the pride of Korea",[7] "national hero" [of Korea],[8] and a "supreme scientist",[9] to international praise and fame.[10][11] Recognitions and honours immediately followed, including South Korea's Presidential Award in Science and Technology, and Time magazine listing him among the "People Who Mattered 2004"[12] and the most influential people "The 2004 Time 100".[13]
Suspicion and controversy arose in late 2005, when Hwang's collaborator, Gerald Schatten at the University of Pittsburgh, came to know of the real source of oocytes (egg cells) used in the 2004 study.[14] The eggs, reportedly from several voluntary donors, were from Hwang's two researchers, a fact which Hwang denied. The ethical issues made Schatten immediately break his ties with Hwang. In December 2005, a whistleblower informed Science of reuse of the same data. As the journal probed in, it was revealed that there was a lot more data fabrication.[14] The SNU immediately investigated the research work and found that both the 2004 and 2005 papers contained fabricated results. Hwang was compelled to resign from the university,[15] and publicly confessed in January 2006 that the research papers were based on fabricated data.[14]Science immediately retracted the two papers.[16]
In 2009, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Hwang for embezzlement and bioethical violations, sentencing him to a two-year imprisonment.[17] The incident was then recorded as the scandal that "shook the world of science,"[6] and became "one of the most widely reported and universally disappointing cases of scientific fraud in history".[18]