Chemical engineering and directed evolution of enzymes
Frances Arnold: Enzymatic lactam synthesis paper, 2020
California Institute of Technology
Errors without misconduct She and her co-authors retracted the paper in January 2020 after the results could not be reproduced, and no misconduct finding was reported.1,2,3
Papers
| Paper | Action | Date | Reason stated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site-selective enzymatic C-H amidation for synthesis of diverse lactams Science, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba61001,2,3 | Retracted | 2 January 2020 | The authors said efforts to reproduce the work showed the enzymes did not catalyse the reactions with the claimed activity and selectivity, and a review of the first author's notebook found missing entries and raw data for key experiments, as reported by GMA News. |
Investigations
- Authors (self-initiated retraction), 2 January 2020The authors retracted the paper after the results could not be reproduced. Pesquisa FAPESP's report does not allege misconduct.2,3
Response
She wrote that the work has not been reproducible and that I was a bit busy when this was submitted, and did not do my job well (GMA News).2
Sources
- Science, via Crossref, Retraction (Cho, Jia and Arnold), Crossref metadata (2 January 2020)
- GMA News, Nobel Prize scientist and team retract scientific paper (4 January 2020)
- Pesquisa FAPESP, Article retracted by Nobel Prize winner (February 2020)