Controversial CRISPR paper claiming widespread ‘off-target mutations’ retracted by Nature Methods journal

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Nature Methods has retracted a 2017 paper suggesting a common gene editing technique may cause widespread collateral damage to the genome.

The notice has a long backstory: After the paper was published, it immediately drew an outcry from critics….ย Some critics argued that the authors, led by Vinit B. Mahajan at Stanford University, hadnโ€™t employed sufficient controls, so they couldnโ€™t be sure that the observed mutations stemmed from the tool, rather than normal background variation between mice…In a new preprint posted on BioRxiv on Monday, the authors concede that their critics may be right.

In the new preprint, Mahanjan and his colleagues acknowledge that the gene editing technique โ€” known as CRISPR-Cas9 โ€” โ€œmay not introduce numerous, unintended, off-target mutations.โ€

However, according to the retraction notice, Mahajan and several of his co-authors object to the retraction….

Read full, original post: Nature journal retracts controversial CRISPR paper after authors admit results may be wrong

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