The British science magazine Nature has begun verifying the authenticity of Hwang Woo-suk's thesis on the world's first cloned dog.

In a statement sent to KBS Wednesday, the journal said Wednesday that even though it had found no information that raises doubts over the paper, it decided to launch the verification process in the wake of the controversy surrounding Hwang’s 2005 stem cell thesis.

Nature said it is currently contacting the authors of the cloned dog thesis, which it published in early August.

The magazine added that it is conducting a mitochondria test on the DNA of the dog, Snuppy, to determine the validity of claims by U.S.-based Advanced Cell Technology that Hwang could have split an embryo and created a twin dog rather than producing a clone.

Nature said it plans to announce the outcome of its verification process in an official statement next month.

In August, Hwang and his team unveiled a five-month-old hound whose genes they said came from a single cell taken from the ear of an adult Afghan rather than the egg and sperm of a mother and father.