Panel admonishes stem-cell scientist

WASHINGTON — Investigators at the University of Pittsburgh have concluded faculty member and stem-cell researcher Gerald Schatten committed "research misbehavior" by seeking personal, professional and financial gains from research being conducted by colleagues in South Korea.

In a summary of its findings, released Friday, a university panel concluded Schatten "likely did not intentionally falsify or fabricate experimental data," misconduct his colleagues in Korea were recently found to have committed.

The Pitt investigators also found no evidence that Schatten was aware of the fraud his co-workers in Korea were committing, and they expressed appreciation for Schatten's prompt reporting of his suspicions as he became aware the work he had contributed to was untrustworthy.

But the panel said Schatten "shirked" his responsibilities as a senior author on two seminal research papers he published with the Koreans; exhibited a "lack of oversight and critical judgment"; sought out the "media spotlight" when the research appeared to be going well and then made a "concerted and deliberate effort ... to distance himself" when it became clear trouble was afoot; and was "disingenuous" with the university investigators who interviewed him.

The report also revealed that Schatten "was not averse" to accepting generous personal payments from his prime Korean collaborator, the now discredited Hwang Woo-suk of Seoul National University. Schatten accepted honoraria totaling $40,000 over 15 months, the report found.

While these failings "would not strictly constitute research misconduct as narrowly defined by University of Pittsburgh policies" — a definition that requires proof of falsification, fabrication or plagiarism — "it would be an example of research misbehavior," the report concluded.

The panel did not recommend disciplinary action against Schatten, saying it would leave that to officials at the medical school.

Schatten remains a tenured professor and researcher at the university, officials said. He has not spoken publicly on the scandal since it broke last year. The university said he is not speaking to the media.

The findings are a landmark in one of the more high-profile scientific-fraud cases in history. In January, a Korean panel concluded Hwang and perhaps others on his team had faked virtually all the data in a pair of papers published in the journal Science in 2004 and 2005. Those papers purported to show for the first time that it was possible to produce with reasonable efficiency stem cells from cloned human embryos custom-designed to help patients who might benefit from them.

Hwang was fired from Seoul National University this week. He faces criminal charges.

While Schatten did not participate directly in the faked research, he accepted much of the career benefits without taking the responsibility expected of a senior collaborator, the report found.

"He took the title of senior author but really didn't know what was going on with the data," said John Gearhart, a stem-cell researcher at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.