Lesson in South Korea: Stem Cells Aren't Cars or Chips

SEOUL, Wednesday, Jan. 11 - The downfall of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean scientist vilified for faking his papers, holds a lesson for developing countries rushing into cutting-edge life science: Do not try to clone human cells the way you churn out cars and computer chips, experts in science regulation said Wednesday.

In a strategy envied by other developing countries, South Korea has become the world's 11th-largest economy by focusing national support on target industries and producing quick results. It is a recipe that enabled the country to challenge Japanese supremacy in semiconductors and shipbuilding.

In the past three years, with Dr. Hwang blazing the way, South Korea has tried the same trick with biotechnology.

That endeavor flopped spectacularly on Tuesday when a panel at Seoul National University announced that Dr. Hwang had completely falsified evidence for papers that had appeared to propel South Korea into global leadership in stem cell research. In his discredited articles, Dr. Hwang claimed to have mastered the technology for cloning human stem cells, a breakthrough toward healing patients with their own regenerated tissue...