A U.S. House subcommittee will hold a hearing next week to consider issues raised by fraudulent stem cell research led by South Korean researcher Hwang Woo-suk.

At Tuesday's hearing in Washington, the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources also plans to ask about federal grants awarded to Dr. Hwang's former collaborator, University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten.

"We're going to be asking our federal witnesses about the grants he's received and the scrutiny such grants received," said Michelle Gress, the subcommittee's counsel.

Neither Dr. Schatten nor anyone else from Pitt was asked to testify at the one-day hearing, Ms. Gress noted. But if problems are uncovered in the awarding of grants for stem cell research, he could be called to testify at future hearings, she said.

Dr. David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, questioned the need for the subcommittee hearing.

It gives opponents of stem cell researchers "the opportunity to tar them with the brush of South Korea," he said.

The committee, which oversees human subjects research and the National Institutes of Health, also plans to address other issues, including potential exploitation of women who provide eggs for stem cell research.

A team led by Dr. Schatten, director of the Pittsburgh Development Center at Magee-Womens Research Institute, received a $16 million federal grant for a stem cell project last year.

Spokeswoman Jane Duffield said the research aims to compare information from monkey stem cell lines with government-approved research into human stem cell lines. The work might lead to improved treatments for human disease, she said.

The Pittsburgh Development Center also received a $6.4 million federal grant in 2003. A renewal of an earlier grant, it focused on cloning monkeys for research. Such cloned animals could test the potential of embryonic stem cell therapies before clinical trials in humans, Ms. Duffield said.

Dr. Schatten was not available to comment yesterday, she said.

Officials scheduled to testify at Tuesday's hearing include Dr. James F. Battey Jr., who chairs the National Institutes of Health's Stem Cell Task Force.