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Scientists are analyzing the perfectly preserved remains of a prehistoric horse in a bid to clone the now-extinct animal. Recently discovered in permafrost in the Siberian region of Yakutia, the skin, hair, hooves and tail of the carcass are all preserved. The remains are estimated to be 30,000 to 40,000 years old. Experts believe that the foal was about 2 months old when it died. Semyon Grigoryev, head of the Mammoth Museum in the regional capital of Yakutsk, was surprised to see the perfect state of the find. He noted it's the best-preserved ancient foal found to date. The Siberian...

The frozen carcass of the dark-brown baby horse is from an extinct species is up to 40,000 years old, and the animal was perfectly preserved in the Siberian permafrost in the Batagai crater in Yakutia, the coldest region in Russia. Leading researcher of the laboratory of Mammoth Museum Dr Semyon Grigoriev said: 'Fortunately, the animal's muscle tissues were undamaged and well preserved, so we managed to get samples of this unique find for biotechnology research.' South Korean cloning expert Professor Hwang Woo Suk, currently in Yakutsk, told The Siberian Times that a joint bid is underway to find a living...

The world of stem cell research was set reeling two years ago when its most successful practitioner, the Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk, was found to have fabricated much of his work. But according to a new post-mortem of his research, he did achieve a scientific first, though not the one he claimed. Dr. Hwang said he had derived embryonic stem cells from the adult cells of a patient, but the claim was discredited after parts of his research were found to have been faked. A team of Boston scientists has now re-examined stocks of Dr. Hwang’s purported embryonic stem...

Seoul, South Korea (LifeNews.com) -- Now that considerable time has passed since Hwang Woo-suk was front page headlines across the world he is picking up his efforts to revive his reputation. Never mind that Hwang published fake scientific studies, pressured women for their eggs for research, bought off local media and may have embezzled millions. Just one day after President Bush vetoed a bill that would have forced taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, the Associated Press released an article featuring several interviews with Hwang's associates. The embattled researcher can no longer conduct embryonic stem cell research in his...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk has resumed his work on animal cloning, but will not restart research on human embryonic stem cells, his lawyer said on Thursday. Hwang is standing trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement for his team's research on stem cells. He left his lab at Seoul National University in December after a panel there said his team fabricated key data in papers once hailed as landmarks but since debunked. "Hwang has opened a biological research facility in southern Seoul earlier this month and is working with about 30 of his former lab...

Seoul, South Korea (LifeNews.com) -- Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, whose team became an international laughingstock after they faked their entirety of their embryonic stem cell research, appeared in court on Monday in a trial about charges that he embezzled public and private research funds. Hwang admitted he spent more than one million in attempting to clone a mammoth. Hwang was indicted in May by South Korean government prosecutors who say that Hwang misspent public and private dollars intended for research. On Monday, Hwang admitted he spent part of the money, some $1.05 million in failed attempts to clone mammoths, extinct...

SEOUL, South Korea - A discredited South Korean cloning scientist admitted in court Tuesday to ordering subordinates to falsify stem cell data for a paper in a scientific journal, but he insisted he should not be the only one blamed in the scandal. Hwang Woo-suk, who falsely claimed breakthroughs in creating stem cells from cloned human embryos, testified at the second hearing of a trial in which he is accused of accepting funds under false pretenses, embezzlement and violating the bioethics law by purchasing eggs for research. For a 2005 paper in the journal Science, Hwang acknowledged that he told...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk went on trial Tuesday on charges of fraud and embezzlement in a scandal over faked stem cell research that undermined global hopes of dramatic new treatments for incurable diseases. Hwang was indicted last month for allegedly accepting $2.1 million in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research and embezzling about $831,000 in private and government research funds. Hwang also was accused of buying human eggs for research, a violation of the country's bioethics law. If convicted, the 52-year-old scientist faces at least three years in prison. Hwang is...

Disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk has been indicted on charges of fraud, embezzlement and breach of a bioethics law in the stem cell fabrication scandal, the prosecution announced yesterday. Concluding a five-month-long investigation, prosecutors confirmed that the former Seoul National University veterinary professor fabricated data for his now discredited research papers that originally claimed to have cloned human stem cells and developed patient-specific stem cell lines. However, it appears that Hwang was also deceived by one of his researchers, Kim Sun-jong, who smuggled invitro-fertilized stem cells from a fertility clinic into the lab to make it look like he had...

S. Korean Cloning Scientist Hwang Indicted By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer Fri May 12, 1:43 AM ET South Korean prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk Friday on charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community. Five members of Hwang's research team were indicted on lesser charges, prosecution official Lee In-kyu said in a nationally televised news conference. Hwang was hailed worldwide as a stem cell pioneer and treated as a national hero until investigations late last year showed that he had fabricated key data, which had...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk was questioned Friday by South Korean government authorities for the first time since the scandal erupted over his falsified stem cell research. The Board of Audit and Inspection questioned Hwang about his possible misappropriation of state funds, spokesman Park Jin-kyu said. Hwang received $42.2 million in government funds for his research as well as $4.35 million from private foundations, according to the board. Hwang already has been questioned by a Seoul National University panel, which has accused the professor of veterinarian medicine of fabricating results published in landmark 2004 and 2005...

In a pair of highly publicized articles, the South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk claimed to have produced human embryos by cloning and to have generated from them several viable stem-cell lines. Hwang's work was heralded by supporters of embryonic-stem-cell research as a great step toward the goal of using embryonic stem cells to treat diseases and afflictions. What had them excited was Hwang's claim to have produced stem cells that match the DNA of the somatic cell's donor, thus defeating (or substantially diminishing) the number-one problem faced in transplant procedures, namely, the rejection by the body's immune system of genetically...

PARIS - South Korean cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk, a science superstar disgraced when his pioneering stem cell research was unmasked as a fraud, has a new job offer from a UFO cult that says it has produced six human clones. Clonaid, a company linked to a group that believes humans were cloned from prehistoric alien visitors to Earth, said it had offered him a post in one of its laboratories.

SEOUL (Reuters) - The president of Seoul National University stripped a title from a disgraced researcher because of science fraud and called for six others to be punished who were part of the same cloning scandal, the school said on Friday. Once heralded and now scorned, scientist Hwang Woo-suk lost his title as "chair-professor." Hwang had already resigned his post at the university on December 23 when an investigation panel said in an interim report that he bore major responsibility for deliberately fabricated data in two landmark papers on embryonic stem cells. Seoul National University President Chung Un-chan said the...

 GENEVA, January 17, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo is reporting that a “US biotech firm” has offered the disgraced Korean cloning researcher, Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, a job. The firm, Clonaid, has been discredited as a sham associated with “Raelians”, a UFO cult that claims humans were planted on Earth by benevolent extraterrestrials.  The cult’s spokesman, Brigitte Boisselier, writing on Clonaid’s website, accuses “religious powers,” for Hwang’s downfall saying it was engineered and that his research results were tampered with. “We also believe that…he has been discredited as he wasn't in line with what the political and...

The U.S. biotech firm Clonaid has sprung to the rescue of the embattled cloning scientist Hwang Woo-sook with an offer to join a research partnership at its secret research facility. Clonaid was founded by the Raelian Movement, a cult-like religious group that maintains humans were created by aliens and claims to have cloned a human being. The company is represented by French scientist Dr. Brigitte Boisselier. A press release from the company on Monday said Boisselier has written to Hwang to outline the proposal. Boisselier said she believed Hwang’s discoveries to be original and that groups opposing stem cell research...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced researcher Hwang Woo-suk asked forgiveness Thursday from fellow South Koreans for his fraudulent claims of human stem cell breakthroughs, but blamed the scandal on junior researchers who he said deceived him. Hwang, in his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, continued to insist he has the technology to use cloning to create human embryonic stem cells genetically matched to patients — saying he could do so in six months if he had access to enough human eggs. Seoul National University, where Hwang is a professor, issued investigation results Tuesday saying he fabricated landmark claims...

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...

SEOUL, South Korea - Disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk asked his fellow South Koreans for forgiveness Thursday at his first public appearance in almost three weeks, saying he takes full responsibility for his fraudulent stem cell research. "I ask for your forgiveness," Hwang told a nationally televised press conference in Seoul. "I feel so miserable that it's difficult even to say sorry." Seoul National University, where Hwang is a professor, on Tuesday issued a final report that he fabricated landmark published claims in 2004 and 2005 to have created the world's first human embryonic stem stells from cloned embryos. "The use...

Junior scientist Park Eul-soon suffered the most personally devastating blunder of her career when in 2003 she accidentally spilled a dish of human eggs while conducting experiments in the South Korean lab of then-clone king Hwang Woo-suk. For that mishap, Hwang coerced Park, a subordinate Ph.D. student in her mid-20s, to replace the lost eggs with her own. After first saying no, Park relented for fear Hwang would otherwise exclude her from academic recognition for her work. Afterward, according to Korean MBC TV, Park morbidly "went back to Hwang's laboratory and conducted the cloning experiment on the eggs that...