Hwang Patent Theft

Gerald Schatten, the University of Pittsburgh researcher who started Woo-suk Hwang’s downfall by accusing him of buying women’s eggs and lying about it, is now being accused in turn by Korean media of trying to steal Hwang’s cloning technique by patenting it here in the United States at a time that he and his now disgraced Korean former partner were still colleagues.

So, the Koreans are mad that Schatten tried to claim ownership of a now discredited technique that apparently didn’t work well enough to derive stem cells lines, if it worked at all. And Schatten helped bring down his former colleague after he apparently double-crossed him while the two were still “friends.”

Whew. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Todo.