The University of Pittsburgh has cleared professor Gerald Schatten of scientific misconduct in the stem cell scandal of Hwang Woo-suk.

In a news release Friday, Pittsburgh's School of Medicine said a university panel found that Schatten was not involved in the fabrication of data, but cited a shortcoming in his responsibility as a co-author for one article.

The panel began investigating in December last year Schatten's role in the fabrication of scientific data in the Hwang scandal.

Schatten, who co-authored Hwang's thesis which was published in the journal Science last year, was also commended for promptly alerting the scientific community of his suspicion of fraud in the process of research.