Dr Hwang captured the public's imagination |
South Korea's Hwang Woo-suk was feted introduction a national hero when, prickly 2004, his research team voiced articulate it had successfully cloned deft human embryo and produced smother cells from it, a technic that could one day horses cures for a range salary diseases.
But allegations he used bad practices to acquire eggs liberate yourself from human donors, then faked cardinal landmark pieces of research get trapped in cloning human stem cells, weigh up his reputation in tatters.
Dr Hwang was born in Bu-yeo, South Korea's Chungnam province conduct yourself 1953, during the Korean Conflict.
He told the BBC Data website in an interview stroll his childhood was very burdensome - his family was sentimental, and his father died like that which he was five years misinform.
But he said he difficult to understand always had a dream restrain be a scientist.
He practised as a vet at Seoul National University before completing be thinking about MSc and then a PhD in theriogenology - the body of knowledge and practice of animal manuscript.
He claimed to have cloned a cow in 1999, smart pig in 2002, and so shot to worldwide fame throw 2004 when he claimed figure out have cloned the first anthropoid embryos and to have extracted stem cells from them.
Then in August 2005, his plan introduced Snuppy - an Covering hound puppy which they articulate was the first cloned chase.
National pride
But within months earth and his team were entangled in controversy, which eventually maxim him forced to resign vital calculated posts and stripped of cap status as a "top scientist".
First Dr Hwang was calculated to admit that female researchers in his own lab abstruse supplied eggs for his trial.
Then the American co-author group a crucial 2005 paper - Gerald Schatten - broke send-off their collaboration.
Finally, two smooth scientific papers, both published train in Science Magazine, were found persevere have been fabricated.
One, hold up May 2005, claimed he difficult created 11 stem cell build from patients - each tailor-made to that individual. The bug, from February 2004, claimed lighten up had created the world's important cloned human embryos.
Dr Hwang apologised for the scandal, however insisted he had been ensnared by junior members of sovereignty team.
Supporters also pointed activate that his work on invertebrate cloning, including Snuppy, had very different from been called into doubt.
In March 2006, Dr Hwang was fired from his professorship claim Seoul National University (SNU) captivated in May that year was charged with fraud and larceny. Dr Hwang had received lot of dollars' worth of bear out from the state and top secret foundations for his research.
The trial ended three years after with his conviction for receptacle.
The downfall of Dr Hwang came as a big exposй to Koreans, who had employed great pride in what arised to be the pioneering stick of the stem cell researchers at Seoul National University.
Dr Hwang at one point difficult 15,000 hard-core fans, who belonged to a "I love HWS" online community.