Seoul National University concluded Wednesday that its professor Kang Soo-kyung, a leading stem cell researcher, fabricated much of her research.

The university announced following an ethics committee meeting that Kang, associate professor at the college of veterinary medicine, had fabricated data in 14 papers published in journals from 2010-2012.

She admitted earlier that there were some “simple mistakes” in her papers, but claimed that she had no intention of distorting the data.

The ethics committee, however, believes that she cut and pasted images from her published paper that had already been retracted for alleged data fabrication in 2011.

The university formed a special investigative body in May to verify the authenticity of her research after suspicion was raised by a whistleblower, who sent an over 70-page inquiry to the editors of 10 international journals that published 14 research papers by Kang.

The news dealt a heavy blow to the local research community, which has been trying to restore its tarnished image after the 2005 stem cell fraud scandal involving Hwang Woo-suk ― once Korea’s national hero and the world’s most renowned cloning expert.

Under the government guidelines revised in 2011, a researcher, if found guilty of scientific misconduct, could face discipline ranging from a ban of up to three years in participating in any further research to outright dismissal.

The university said Kang will now be summoned to its disciplinary committee, and may face being stripped of her position.

Observers say SNU also cannot escape from its responsibility for not fully confronting the case. Kang had been called into the university’s ethnics committee earlier in 2010 for alleged data fabrication in her paper submitted to the International Journal of Cancer.

But she received only a verbal warning then, and was able to continue her research until recently.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)