Prosecutors have asked Hwang Woo-suk’s former colleague, University of Pittsburgh Professor Gerald P. Schatten, to appear for questioning in Korea. Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said yesterday it sent an e-mail to Dr. Schatten because it wanted to question him on the procedure of how a 2005 paper on customized cell cloning was written and his role in the cloning project. Dr. Schatten was one of the co-authors of papers, published in 2004 and 2005 by the U.S. journal Science that were later retracted.
Prosecutors also said yesterday that they expect Park Jong-hyuk, a co-author of a 2004 article on stem cell cloning and former MizMedi researcher, who is now working with Dr. Schatten, to return to Korea this weekend. They will summon him for questioning as soon as he arrives.
Prosecutors will spend the weekend analyzing data obtained from raids they conducted on the houses of Dr. Hwang and other figures involved in the scandal. Also this weekend, they expect to receive results of DNA tests on mice whose spinal cords were deliberately damaged and injected with alleged stem cell lines 1 and 2. Prosecutors found the cell lines earlier this week, and sent them for DNA tests to see if they came from Seoul National University or MizMedi.

by Ha Jae-sik, Wohn Dong-hee for JoongAng Daily