Allegations throw Korean’s cloning research into doubt

SAN FRANCISCO – A big cloning advance may have been the result of fake science.

University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten has demanded that the journal Science remove him as the senior author of a report it published in June that detailed how individual stem cell colonies were created for 11 patients through cloning.

“My careful re-evaluations of published figures and tables, along with new problematic information, now casts substantial doubts about the paper’s accuracy,” Schatten wrote in a letter to Science released late Tuesday. “Over the weekend, I received allegations from someone involved with the experiments that certain elements of the report may be fabricated.”

Stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who spearheaded the high-profile human cloning work, could not be reached for comment.