Prosecutors forbid travel of 11 cloners

Prosecutors are preparing investigations of charges both by and against Hwang Woo-suk, Korea’s beleaguered genetic researcher.
The Justice Ministry said yesterday that it would look into charges by Dr. Hwang that stem cells he says he cloned were switched with other, unrelated lines. The ban hit 11 researchers, including Dr. Hwang, Roh Sung-il of MizMedi Hospital, and Kim Sun-jong, a former member of Dr. Hwang’s team who is now a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. Prosecutors said more people could be included in the travel ban as the investigation proceeds.
Seoul National University’s review committee said it would announce its final conclusions on Dr. Hwang’s stem cell and cloning research Tuesday morning. That, the committee said in its daily report yesterday, would conclude its work.
The committee promised to include a report of the number of human egg cells used by Dr. Hwang’s team, how the eggs were obtained, whether the cloned dog named Snuppy is a true clone and whether Dr. Hwang’s 2004 paper on embryonic stem cell cloning was accurate. The committee has already announced that a paper issued by the journal Science in June 2005 and written by Dr. Hwang was a fabrication.

by Moon Byung-joo, Wohn Dong-hee