SEOUL, Dec 23: South Korean investigators said on Friday that the stem cell research by cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk had been faked, turning the one-time national hero into a disgraced fabricator.

A nine-member committee from Mr Hwang’s Seoul National University said his paper published this year in Science journal contained false information.

“The data of the 2005 paper were not the result of simple mistakes but of an intentional fabrication,” the committee said in a statement issued after a week-long probe. “This is a serious wrongdoing that has damaged the foundation of science.”

Mr Hwang had admitted to having played a role in manipulating scientific data, committee spokeswoman Roh Jung-Hye said.

She said the committee was also investigating the authenticity of Hwang’s 2004 paper and his work on ‘Snuppy’ — the Afghan hound that the professor unveiled in August as the world’s first cloned dog.

The disgraced scientist immediately accepted the committee’s report and gave up his professorship. “I sincerely apologize,” he said. “I am resigning as a Seoul National University professor.”

Mr Hwang, however, insisted that patient-tailored embryonic stem cells remain “the proud technology of our nation.” With his reputation already in tatters over previous revelations of ethical problems in his research, the veterinary professor had been under pressure from the academic community to give up his research and posts.— AFP