55 Facts About Hwang Woo-Suk

Hwang Woo-Suk was a professor of theriogenology and biotechnology at Seoul National University who became infamous for fabricating a series of experiments, which appeared in high-profile journals, in the field of stem cell research.

On May 12,2006, Hwang Woo-Suk was charged with embezzlement and bioethics law violations after it emerged much of his stem cell research had been faked.

Hwang Woo-Suk was sentenced to a two years suspended prison sentence at the Seoul Central District Court on 26 October 2009, after being found guilty of embezzlement and bioethical violations but cleared of fraud.

Hwang Woo-Suk had his conviction upheld on 15 December 2010 by an appeals court in South Korea, which resulted in his suspended sentence being reduced by 6 months.

Since the controversy, Hwang Woo-Suk has maintained a relatively low profile, but still continues to work in the sciences.

Related searches

In February 2011, Hwang Woo-Suk visited Libya as part of a $133 million project in the North African country to build a stem cell research center and transfer relevant technology.

Hwang Woo-Suk first caught media attention in South Korea when he announced he successfully created a cloned dairy cow, Yeongrong-i in February 1999.

Hwang Woo-Suk's alleged success was touted as the fifth instance in the world in cow cloning, with a notable caveat: Hwang failed to provide scientifically verifiable data for the research, giving only media sessions and photo-ops.

Hwang Woo-Suk explained that his team used 242 eggs to create a single cell line.

Hwang Woo-Suk's team announced an even greater achievement a year later in May 2005, and claimed they had created 11 human embryonic stem cells using 185 eggs.

Hwang Woo-Suk's work, published in the June 17 issue of Science, was instantly hailed as a breakthrough in biotechnology because the cells were allegedly created with somatic cells from patients of different age and gender, while the stem cell of 2004 was created with eggs and somatic cells from a single female donor.

Shortly after his groundbreaking 2005 work, Hwang Woo-Suk was appointed to head the new World Stem Cell Hub, a facility that was to be the world's leading stem cell research centre.

However, Roh claimed Hwang Woo-Suk was unaware of this, while the South Korean Ministry of Health assured that no laws or ethical guidelines had been breached as there were no commercial interests involved in this payout.

Hwang Woo-Suk maintained that he was unaware that these actions were happening during the research and he resigned from his post.

Hwang Woo-Suk added that he had lied about the source of the eggs donated to protect the privacy of his female researchers, and that he was not aware of the Declaration of Helsinki, which clearly enumerates his actions as a breach of ethical conduct.

Sympathy for Hwang Woo-Suk poured out, resulting in an increase in the number of women who wanted to donate their eggs for Hwang Woo-Suk's research.

On January 12,2006, Hwang Woo-Suk held a press conference to apologize for the entire fiasco, but still did not admit to cheating.

Hwang Woo-Suk said that cloning human stem cells was possible and that he had the technology to do it, and if he were given six more months he could prove it.

On January 20,2006, Hwang Woo-Suk maintained that two of his 11 forged stem cell lines had been maliciously switched for cells from regular, not cloned, embryos.

On November 22,2016, Hwang Woo-Suk received a certificate of patent on NT-1 technology by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

Hwang Woo-Suk allegedly used this technique at his laboratory in SNU to clone dogs during his experiments throughout the early 2000s.

Hwang Woo-Suk claimed that it was possible to clone mammals and that probability for success can be better than 1 in 277 attempts.

Hwang Woo-Suk was the first in the world to clone a dog, an Afghan hound called Snuppy in 2005.

Hwang Woo-Suk described his procedure for cloning in the journal Nature.

In March 2012, it was announced that Hwang Woo-Suk would collaborate with Russian scientists in an attempt to clone a woolly mammoth from remains found in Siberia.

Related searches

Hwang Woo-Suk had previously successful cloned eight coyotes in March 2011 using domestic dogs as surrogate mothers and grey wolves.

In 2016, Hwang Woo-Suk's company was regularly cloning pigs which were genetically predisposed to certain diseases so that they could be used for testing pharmaceuticals and cloning cattle which were highly valued for their meat.

Until late November 2005, Hwang Woo-Suk was criticized only for unpublicized ethical violations.

Hwang Woo-Suk responded that these additional photos were accidentally included and that there was no such duplication in the original submission to Science.

Days later, Hwang Woo-Suk started going to his laboratory while requesting Seoul National University to officially conduct a probe to the allegations surrounding him.

Several prominent scientists, including Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, and Bob Lanza, a cloning expert based in Worcester, Massachusetts, did call on Hwang Woo-Suk to submit his paper to an outside group for independent analysis.

Hwang Woo-Suk started his press conference by claiming that the technology to make stem cells exists, which is not an explicit statement that the stem cell lines he featured in his paper to Science were not fakes.

Hwang Woo-Suk accused Dr Kim Sun-Jong, a former collaborator, of "switching" some of the stem cell lines.

Hwang Woo-Suk maintained that at least nine of the eleven stem cell lines were fakes and that Hwang is simply untrustworthy.

Roh told MBC television that Hwang Woo-Suk had pressured a former scientist at his lab to fake data to make it look like there were 11 stem cell colonies.

On July 26,2006, Hwang Woo-Suk said in testimony that he spent part of 500 million won in private donations in attempts to clone extinct Russian mammoths and Korean tigers.

On December 23,2005, Hwang Woo-Suk apologized for "creating a shock and a disappointment" and announced that he was resigning his position as professor at the university.

However, Hwang Woo-Suk maintained that patient-matched stem cell technology remains in South Korea, and his countrymen shall see it.

On May 12,2006, Hwang Woo-Suk was indicted on charges of embezzlement and breach of the country's bioethics law, without physical detention.

Investigators said Hwang Woo-Suk used bank accounts held by relatives and subordinates in 2002 and 2003 to receive about 475 million won from private organizations.

Hwang Woo-Suk allegedly laundered the money by withdrawing it all in cash, breaking it up into smaller amounts and putting it back in various bank accounts.

Hwang Woo-Suk withdrew 140 million won in August 2001 to buy gifts for his sponsors, including politicians and other prominent social figures, before Chusok holidays, according to prosecutors.

Hwang Woo-Suk allegedly misappropriated around 26 million won in research funds in September 2004 to buy a car for his wife.

Hwang Woo-Suk is suspected of embezzling 600 million won, provided by a private foundation, on multiple occasions from 2001 to 2005 for personal use.

Hwang Woo-Suk allegedly provided 14 million won to executives of large companies that provided financial support for his research.

Related searches

The prosecution added Hwang Woo-Suk wired about 200 million won to a Korean American, identified only as Kang, in September 2005 and received the equivalent amount in US currency from him when the scientist visited the United States two months later.

Also in 2005, Hwang Woo-Suk received one billion won each in research funds from SK Group and the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation based on his fabricated stem cell research results.

Hwang Woo-Suk claimed he and his team had extracted stem cells from cloned human embryos.

Hwang Woo-Suk especially tried to win favor from the Roh Moo-hyun government, which in turn was suffering from a lack of popular support and wanted to demonstrate its competency by creating and promoting an exemplary policy success.

Hwang Woo-Suk approached Park Ki-young, a former biology professor, then appointed as the Information, Science and Technology Advisor for the President, and put her as one of the co-authors in his 2004 Science paper.

Hwang Woo-Suk, having already claimed the title of POSCO Chair Professor worth US$1.

The title of Supreme Scientist awarded to Hwang Woo-Suk was revoked on March 21,2006, after Hwang Woo-Suk was dismissed from Seoul National University the day before.

Hwang Woo-Suk said the group will seek to establish bioethics guidelines and come up with supporting measures for biotechnology researchers in the country.

The second show in 2006, on January 10, dealt further with the Hwang Woo-Suk affair, focusing on several instances of Hwang Woo-Suk's media spinning tactics.

Stem cell research center that Hwang Woo-Suk led before resigning said it hoped he would return, even though his lapses could hurt its efforts to work with other research institutions.