A special panel of the Seoul National University (SNU) Tuesday concluded that South Korea's embattled researcher Hwang Woo-suk's two papers on human embryonic stem cells were both fabricated.

The panel made the conclusion in its final report released at a televised press conference on Tuesday on probing the authenticity of Hwang's stem cell researches.

In the paper published in February 2004 by the U.S.- based journal of Science, Hwang's team claimed it successfully cloned human embryo and extracted a stem cell line from it for the first time in the world.

Hwang's team claimed in the paper published by Science in May 2005 that it successfully produced 11 patient-tailored stem cell lines. The development cited in the paper was widely viewed as an important progress in therapeutic cloning research.

The nine-member panel judged in the final report that data used in the 2004 paper was based on ovum's "parthenogenesis mutation" that may be cultivated accidently.

"We reached a conclusion that DNA printing and stem cell photos used in the 2004 paper contained fabrications," Chung Myung-hee, head of the special panel, said at the press conference.

The 2004 paper made Hwang the first class scientist in the stem cell research field in the world.

While, at the same time, the panel reaffirmed its previous tentative conclusion in the final report that all the data showed in Hwang's 2005 paper are fake.

The panel also said Hwang's previous allegation that his team holds "core technology" of producing stem cells lacked practicality.

"There was no scientific evidence that Hwang had produced stem cells," said Chung.

On the issue of how many ova Hwang's team used in its researches, the panel said it found much more ova than Hwang's team claimed in the two papers were provided for the researches.

The panel said during November 2002 to November 2005, four local hospitals procured 2,061 ova from 129 donors and provided the ova to Hwang's team.

Hwang had claimed his team used 242 human eggs to successfully make one stem cell in the 2004 paper, and 185 eggs to produce 11 individually tailored stem cells in the 2005 paper.

The panel pointed out that at least 273 ova were used by Hwang's team for the 2005 paper, not 185 as it claimed.

However, the panel verified the authenticity of the world first cloned dog - "Snuppy", which was made by Hwang's team in 2005.

"Snuppy was confirmed to have been cloned from somatic cells of a dog," said Chung.

The panel's report also recommended the SNU to take disciplinary action to all people involved in Hwang's research due to the "serious data fabrication."

Stem cells are primal undifferentiated cells which retain the ability to differentiate into other cell types. Medical researchers believe stem cell research has the potential to find new way to treat hard-to-cure diseases by developing stem cells to specific tissues or organs.

The controversy over Hwang's study erupted when a local TV station reported in last November that the scientist's team had used ova paid for by a local hospital and that two of his junior researchers donated their eggs in 2003 for embryonic stem cell research.

In late November 2005, Hwang admitted those ethical lapses existed in his research and announced resignation from head of the World Stem Cell Hub that opened in last October here.

The SNU launched the special panel to make independent investigation over the authenticity controversy over Hwang's researches in last December.

After the panel found fabrication of Hwang's 2005 paper, Hwang offered resignation from his SNU professorship in late December last year.

Hwang and other 24 co-authors of the 2005 paper also asked Science to retract the paper in late last year.

Editor: Yan