With the exception of a single cloned dog, all the major scientific discoveries claimed by Woo Suk Hwang, once the world's leading stem cell scientist, were faked, a Seoul National university panel concluded last Monday.

In its final report on the research of the disgraced Dr Hwang, who claimed to have cloned the world's first human embryo in 2004 and then to have created patient-specific stem cells in 2005, the panel said that South Korea's former "Top Scientist" had become a "scandalous case".
The report completed the very public ignominy of Dr Hwang, who was claim a national hero in South Korea.

Just before Christmas, an interim report from the panel said that Dr Hwang had fabricated the bulk of his claim to have produced 11 lines of patient-specific stem cells last May. Dr Hwang's research, published in the journal, Science, had promised a potentially revolutionary treatment for diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Dr Hwang, 52, resigned from South Korea's best known university on the same morning as the interim report was released.

On December 23rd. he apologised for his misleading research, stripped himself of his professorship and resigned from Seoul National University, the country's leading educational institution, after an expert committee announced the initial findings of an inquiry.

Hwang's team is alleged to have fabricated at least nine of his 11 stem cell lines, manipulating photographs and concocting DNA tests.

Dogs are notoriously difficult to clone, and Snuppy was hailed as proof of Dr Hwang's virtuoso technical ability.