Key Stem Cell Researcher Vanishes

With one of the core members of Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk's research team stationed at the University of Pittsburgh disappearing, emergency alert has been initiated because of fears of a possible leak of stem cell technology.

With this alert, key members of Hwang's team have abruptly left for the University of Pittsburgh, adding yet another level of tension to the saga.

"For the last two weeks we have been unable to contact Park Eul-soon, one of the members of the team that was stationed at the University of Pittsburgh to work" with Hwang's erstwhile collaborator Gerald Schatten there, an insider with the SNU team said. "The whole atmosphere coming from the U.S. team is strange." Schatten last month publicly severed ties with Hwang over ethical flaws in the team's procurement of human egg cells.

Park was originally supposed to return to Korea on Nov. 17 "but for some reason gave the impression that she intended to remain in the U.S.," the insider said. "We are looking into the situation." On the same day, SNU Prof. Ahn Cu-rie and...