MBC Proposes Joint Probe With Hwang

MBC TV Friday said a DNA test showed that the conclusions in Hwang Woo-suk_s historic paper published in Science magazine could be false and requested the stem-cell cloning pioneer_s cooperation in doing another test.

A research agency that conducted the test for MBC, however, argued that the result of the test, which the TV station relies on in its claim that Hwang may have doctored his experiments, does not carry any significant meaning, because the condition of the samples were too poor to get definite results.

MBC producer Choi Seong-ho of an investigative news magazine, ``PD Notebook,__ said that his team employed that research organization to test 15 stem cell samples cloned by Hwang_s team. He said that the DNA code from one of the cells was not identical with the one from that of the egg donor.

Choi insisted that the test contradicts Science_s conclusions, as the journal only had reviewed data provided by the Seoul National University professor without themselves examining the cells.

``In October, we asked Donald Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science, whether his staff actually examined the...