After being hailed as a significant breakthrough, some scientists are now questioning whether a new Chinese gene editing technique is indeed for real.
In a statement posted on his blog on July 29, Australian National university professor Gannet Burgio expressed his doubts on whether Chinese geneticist Han Chunyu's NgAgo gene editing technique is indeed as effective as was initially claimed, the Global Times reported.
According to Burgio, he was not able to replicate the results published by Han in his initial paper detailing the process, despite doing multiple setups and testing on three different genes. He further asserted that the conditions Han detailed in his paper are actually contradictory to those that would result in a successful replication of the results.
He went on to say that other labs around the world have also not been able to replicate Han\s results. Burgio has earlier praised Han's new method of modifying genes as being efficient when tested in mice.
Researcher Lluis Montoliu of the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology also aired similar doubts. Montoliu said that he had asked Han to provide him with a sample of the NgAgo plasmid that Han used for his research and was provided with by the latter.
However, Montoliu said that he wasn't able to replicate Han's results despite using the same reagent. He further said that other labs that used the same reagent were also not able to obtain favorable results.
Han's method reportedly uses the bacteria Natronbacterium gregory Argonaute (NgAgo) to deliver DNA components to target cells. The method has been touted to be much better than current gene editing techniques, including the highly successful CRISPR/Cas9, for which it has been claimed to be a potential replacement.
Han defended his research, saying that he has done all the proper methodologies to validate the results. He also said that he is to share the research's raw data for others to verify his results, provided that the request is made by the journal Nature Biotechnology, where his original paper was published, China.org reported.