Nature Biotechnology announced on August 3 that it retracted a 2016 paper on NgAgo following heavy criticisms by outside groups that they could not reproduce the findings.

The paper was in fact retracted at the request of its leading author, Han Chunyu from Hebei University of Science and Technology, China, Han’s team said in an announcement on August 3.

Nature Biotechnology said Han’s decision to retract was the best course of action to maintain the integrity of scientific publications.

Han and his team will further research on the reason why the findings cannot be replicated. Meanwhile, the university will launch academic evaluations of Han’s research findings and undertake relevant procedures.

The team has agreed to reexamine the validity of gene editing under the support of peer scientists in a third-party lab at Han’s university. The results will be published to respond to widespread concerns.

Scientists in and outside China began raising doubts about the conclusions following the paper’s publication last year, saying NgAgo shows no sign of gene editing capability, Nature Biotechnology said.

Han’s team had claimed that NgAgo could locate and cut gene sequences more accurately than CRISPR-Cas9, a dominant technology in genome editing. According to media monitor, Meltwater, nearly 4,000 Chinese news stories cited Han’s paper within two months of publication.