SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea's Seoul National University (SNU) said Monday it is likely to release the final results of its investigation of the authenticity of its professor's stem cell research in early January 2006.

    The panel said in a news release Monday that it will take some time to analyze all the data and compile the testimonies of key researchers before issuing conclusive report of the probing.

    Last Friday, an ad hoc panel of the SNU issued a preliminary report over its investigation, which tentatively concluded Hwang Woo-suk, a South Korean stem cell researcher, fabricated its results in the paper published in May 2005 in the U.S.-based journal of Science.

    The tentative report said Hwang's team had reported it had 11 patient-tailored stem cell lines but there were only two such stem cell lines on March 15 when it submitted its paper to the journal Science.

    The panel's interim report further said it will conduct DNA analysis to determine whether the two stem cells were patient-tailored embryonic stem cells.

    The final report is expected to include the results of the DNA fingerprinting on stem cell lines allegedly made by Hwang and his team, whether Hwang's team has the source technology of extraction of stem cells from cloned human embryo, the authenticity of Hwang's paper published in Science in 2004 on the first cloned embryonic stem cell line and the one published in Britain-based journal of Nature over first cloned dog in the world, the panel said in the news release.

    Earlier Monday, some local media quoted sources familiar to the panel as reporting that preliminary DNA fingerprinting has shown that two alleged patient-tailored embryonic stem cell samples used for the May paper are not authentic.

    Hwang previously claimed at a press conference earlier this month that someone might have switched the patient-tailored embryonic stem cells.

    Hwang also already asked the public prosecutors' office to conduct a investigation on the matter.

    Ethical and authenticity controversy surrounding Hwang's stem cell research has been topped headlines of local media in recent two months. Enditem