Nature BT 对韩春雨论文表达编辑关切, 设定2017.1月期限

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今天，Nature Biotechnology对韩春雨NgAgO基因编辑论文发表声明：(1) 刊登经同行评议的美国、德国、韩国9家单位联合评论文章“Failure to detect DNA-guided genome editing using Natronobacterium gregoryi Argonaute”，即无法实现NgAgo基因编辑功能；（2）对韩春雨论文表达编辑关切，即Editorial Expression of Concern；（3）设定2017年1月期限，限作者予以澄清说明，“provide them with the opportunity to do that by January 2017”； (4) 韩春雨与沈啸同意Editorial Expression of Concern，但另外三位作者反对！

文末可以下载评论PDF及相关论文。

今天，韩春雨NgAgo的基因编辑论文争议翻开新的一页，Nature Biotechnology发表线上声明，题为：

Statement regarding“DNA-guided genome editing using the Natronobacterium gregoryi Argonaute” by Han Chunyu and colleagues, published in Nature Biotechnology

其核心有以下四点：

（1）刊登经同行评议的三国九家单位联合评论文章：

Failure to detect DNA-guided genome editing using Natronobacterium gregoryi Argonaute

即无法实现NgAgo基因编辑功能。文章共同通讯作者为德国的Toni Cathomen（Google h-index 37），美国的Stephen C Ekker(第一时间在Twitter公开消息：Our peer reviewed paper on failure to see any DNA editing with NgAgo is finally out.），和韩国的Jin-Soo Kim。

这九家实验室分别来自美国的Mayo Clinic（2家），德国的University of Freiburg（4家），和韩国的Institute for Basic Science和Seoul National University。其中Mayo Clinic的Zhenkun Lou教授为唯一华人作者。NBT声明，这篇评论文章通过了同行评议。有意思的是，三位通讯作者都在文章末尾声明存在竞争经济利益（Competing financial interests）：

S.C.E. is a co-founder of Lifengine Technologies, Inc.; T.C. is a consultant for TRACR Hematology; J.-S.K. is a co-founder and shareholder of ToolGen, Inc.

这篇文章的核心如下： 三家小组试图独立重复韩春雨NgAgo基因编辑论文，尽管努力优化，仍然没有发现基因编辑证据：

Here, we report the results of three different groups, independently attempting to reproduce the original findings of Gao et al., specifically focusing on the evidence for DNA edits in cultured human cell lines... Despite various attempts to optimize NgAgo-mediated genome editing in three of the reported cell lines, no evidence of successful editing of endogenous target sequences was detected.

最后，评论下如此结论：

On the basis of the above data, we conclude that in conditions designed to replicate those in Gao et al., co-delivery of plasmid DNA encoding NgAgo and a 5′-phosphorylated single-strand gDNA alone is insufficient to induce gene editing at the indel frequencies in cultured human cells reported in the original study.

据称，此前发表在Protein & Cell的评论文章，也曾投稿NBT，但可能因为当前这篇文章已经被考虑，所以没有被接受。

（2）对韩春雨论文表达编辑关切：Editoral Expression of Concern

编辑提醒读者关于韩春雨论文可重复性的疑问：

The editors of Nature Biotechnology are issuing an editorial expression of concern regarding this article to alert our readers to concerns regarding the reproducibility of the original results.

并提到了美德韩三国实验室在NBT的联合评论，以及20家实验室在Protein & Cell的联合评论：

we are publishing the results of three groups that have tried to reproduce the results in the critical Figure 4 in the original paper by Han and colleagues... None of the groups observed any induction of mutations by NgAgo at any of the loci or underany of the conditions tested above the sensitivity of the assays used. Similar results have been recently reported by a different group of authors in Protein& Cell.

（3）设定期限，限作者澄清说明

在关切之中，编辑表示与作者保持着联系，而作者正在调查不可重复的潜在原因，这与韩春雨此前接受采访时的说法一致：

We are in contact with the authors, who are investigating potential causes for the lack of reproducibility...

NBT并表示作者调查清楚是非常重要的，但给出了2017年1月底期限，届时并将做进一步更新。也就是说韩春雨团队将有两个月的时间自证清白：

Nature Biotechnology believes that it is important for authors to be able to investigate the concerns raised by the Correspondence and to provide additional information and evidence to support their paper if they are able to do so.  Thus, we will continue to liaise with the authors of the original paper to provide them with the opportunity to do that by January 2017. An update will be provided to the community at that time.

（4）韩春雨与沈啸对编辑关切表示同意

全篇声明最耐人寻味的一点，恐怕在这里，韩春雨和沈啸对编辑关切表示同意，但另外三位作者表示异议，认为当前并不合适，包括第一作者高：

Chunyu Han and Xiao Shen agree with this editorial expression of concern. Feng Gao, Feng Jiang and Yongqiang Wu do not feel that it is appropriate at this time.

这中间有什么玄机，不得而知。

公众号下回复Ago，可以下载韩春雨原始论文与NBT今日评论。

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