Research Papers

Gene-editing row escalates

ETC
Author
Master
Date
2016-12-16 21:46
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89732

Attempts to use a controversial potential rival to the CRISPR–Cas9 technique have now been published.


A heated dispute over gene-editing that began in blogs and social media is now playing out in the scientific literature.Six months ago, Chinese researchers reported that an enzyme called NgAgo could be used to edit mammalian genes1 — and that it might be more accurate and more versatile than the popular CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editor. But other scientists complained that they could not replicate the experiment.Now, a paper published in Protein & Cell lists multiple failed replications, and another, published in Cell Research, suggests that NgAgo may only block, but not edit, genes when injected into zebrafish (Danio rerio).Nature Biotechnology, which published the first NgAgo paper, has also published a report of three failed attempts to replicate the original experiment, and an ‘expression of concern’ to accompany the original paper.Nature Biotechnology is editorially independent of Nature’s news team and is owned by Nature’s publisher, Springer Nature.Han Chunyu, a biologist at Hebei University of Science and Technology in Shijiazhuang who first reported the NgAgo experiment, says that he stands by his team’s original claims and that “the Nature Biotechnology paper provides us some clues as to why others are having problems.” He says that he hopes to submit a scientific paper explaining why others are having difficulty by the end of the year.Nature Biotechnology says that it will give Han’s team the opportunity to respond to the criticisms in the report by January 2017. “An update will be provided to the community at that time,” said a spokesperson. Gene-editing techniques that precisely disable or modify specific sections of a genome have taken the biomedical world by storm.NgAgo is one of several proposed alternatives to the most popular method, CRISPR–Cas9. The 20 authors of the Protein & Cell paper describe how they attempted without success to use NgAgo to edit a variety of genomes.Eight of the labs then tried the feat again, using genetic materials provided by Han, targeting the same genes and also applying the technique to human cells. They all failed.

READ MORE Nature Magazine [Jan 2016]
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