Woo suk hwang biography of mahatma

Here, news@nature compiles a guide to the main characters in a major stem-cell scandal, at the centre of which stands South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang.

After Hwang published work claiming his team had extracted patient-matched stem cells from cloned embryos, it was shown to be a complete fake. For all our news stories and a timeline of events see our special on Hwang.

Woo suk hwang biography of mahatma

Woo Suk Hwang

Hwang grew up in a poor village in Korea (see 'Profile: Woo-Suk Hwang'). He became a veterinarian who later turned to medical science, hoping, he has told Nature, to improve the lot of his countrymen.

He created the country's first cow born from in vitro fertilization in 1993, then became something of a national hero after cloning one in 1999. Hwang went on to try to clone an endangered tiger, tried his hand at pigs, and even claimed to have developed a cow resistant to mad cow disease in 2003.

Critics point out that many of Hwang's early cl