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Nobel Prize scientist and team retract scientific paper


Scientist and Nobel Prize winner Frances Arnold and her team retracted their research paper about diverse lactams on Thursday.

Arnold, who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the research on the directed evolution of enzymes, shared the announcement on Twitter.

 

 

 

"I am totally bummed to announce that we have retracted last year's paper on enzymatic synthesis of beta-lactams. The work has not been reproducible," she said.

The team withdrew their published paper "Site-selective enzymatic C?H amidation for synthesis of diverse lactams” because of the non-reproducibility of results, and missing entries and raw data in a lab notebook.

"Efforts to reproduce the work showed that the enzymes do not catalyze the reactions with the activities and selectivities claimed. Careful examination of the first author's lab notebook then revealed missing contemporaneous entries and raw data for key experiments," the authors wrote in an explanation on Thursday.

In a separate tweet, Arnold admitted that she did not do her job well.

 

 

 

"It is painful to admit, but important to do so. I apologize to all. I was a bit busy when this was submitted, and did not do my job well," she wrote.

Several netizens and members from the scientific community praised Arnold and her team for admitting their mistake.

"You set up an example what it means to be a scientist.  Please accept my highest level of respect, this is something that a Noble Prize can not measure.  Thank you!" said netizen and scientist Lana Garmire on Twitter.

"You are a beacon of integrity, thank you for this.  I'm terribly sorry that it worked out this way but incredibly pleased to see your bold action, which will almost certainly save years of wasted effort by students and postdocs.  Most importantly, it's the right thing to do," wrote another netizen and scientist Tim Triche Jr.

The reproducibility of a scientific experiment's results is important in proving its validity.

—Angelica Y. Yang/JCB, GMA News

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