Science journal will weigh in on whether Chinese team made genetic engineering breakthrough
Nature Biotechnology plans to look into a controversy surrounding an article by Hebei scientists
The British journal Nature Biotechnology said on Tuesday that it would look into a controversy over an article published by a team of Chinese scientists claiming a breakthrough in engineering human and animal genes, state media reported.
Dr Han Chunyu and his team at Hebei University of Science and Technology said in May that they had developed a new gene editor called NgAgo that was more efficient and effective than the commonly used one, CRISPR.
Despite initial reports of success by other scientists at replicating the methods of Han’s team, in recent weeks some have started to question whether its findings can be reproduced.
Citing a journal spokesman, Xinhua said the publication had been contacted by some researchers who claimed they could not repeat the experiment. The spokesman said Nature Biotechnology would look into the matter, adding that authors must abide by its rules and provide data, codes and experiment procedures to readers in a timely manner.
The university said Han would “use appropriate ways” to publicly verify his team’s findings within a month in the presence of a third party, People’s Daily news app reported.