BU researchers retract genetic study of longevity
Science is self correcting through both method and debate which most critics don’t seem to be able to understand. This paper could still be right, but they need to go back to the start to prove their case better.
Boston University researchers today retracted a controversial, high-profile paper that claimed to identify a genetic signature for extreme longevity, after a new analysis showed some of their original data were incorrect.
The paper, originally published online by the journal Science last July, analyzed the genes of centenarians and found genetic markers that appeared to be unusually strong predictors of whether a person was likely to live a very long life. But outside researchers raised serious questions about the methods used in the study, problems first reported by Newsweek last year. A statement from Science today said that there was no misconduct by the researchers but that once technical and quality control problems had been addressed, the resubmitted data would not merit publication in the journal.