Cloning an extinct woolly mammoth was one of Woo-Suk's projects.
Credit: U.S. National Parks Service
SEOUL: The disgraced South Korean cloning expert on trial for fraud and fake research insisted in court yesterday he could still prove he created the first cloned human stemcells.
Hwang Woo-Suk, hailed as a national hero before a university inquiry ruled his work was bogus, blamed junior researchers for faking some research but said his now discredited claims were real.
Hwang also denied embezzling any funds, one of the array of charges against him, and said some of the money had gone to shadowy Russian mafia groups to obtain frozen animal cells to experiment with.
"How could I say in detail where the money went?" Hwang told the court, adding he had not taken a "single penny" for himself.
Hwang said he still believed that his team had produced the world's first cloned human embryo stemcell - a medical milestone that could offer hope in treating dozens of illnesses such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.
Hwang said some of the samples were in the hands of a former research partner, Moon Shin-Young, who had refused to return them.
"We may seek a court injunction to compel professor Moon to return the samples so that we can prove the production of the first human stemcells was genuine," Hwang's lawyer Jung Keun-Hwa said.
Hwang has admitted exaggerating the numbers of stem cells he said he had cloned and said that "some" bogus photographs were used in the 2004 article that laid out his claims of producing 11 stem cells.
Hwang's lawyers said the scientist was absent-minded in explanation of the flawed bookkeeping of his institute that sparked the embezzlement charges.
But the scientist said some of the funds were paid to Russians while he worked on projects to clone a Siberian tiger and the extinct woolly mammoth, which was part of his research on growing new organs for human beings.
Hwang claimed to have paved the way for treatments of incurable diseases by creating stemcells through cloning which would not be rejected when inserted into a patient's body. But his successes could not be repeated by others, a key test for scientific method.
His research was then called into question after local media and other scientists raised the possibility that the data and photos of cells used for his papers might have been fabricated.
Hwang was stripped of all government honours and funds, including his title as South Korea's "Supreme Scientist," after Seoul National University concluded his claims - first made public in a 2004 science journal - were fake.
He was indicted in May for fraud, embezzlement, ethical breaches and other charges, but has retained a core following of supporters.
When Tuesday's court hearing adjourned until November 14, dozens of his supporters in the audience applauded and chanted: "Cheer up, Professor Hwang!"
Five other scientists have been indicted in connection with the bogus research and the disappearance of millions of dollars in research funds.
Hwang accused two of his assistants of doctoring research to cover up their own mistakes in culturing cloned human cells.
Asked in court whether he had ordered the pair to fabricate scientific data, he replied: "It sounds like fiction."
