Equipment defect leads to reanalysis of gene study

[July 23, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The journal Science is reporting that researchers who said they were closing in on determining the impact of family versus lifestyle in lifespan are reanalyzing their findings.

The study, published July 1, said that by looking at genetic markers the researchers were able to determine with 77 percent accuracy which gene groups came from people over 100.

In Thursday's announcement the team, led by Paola Sebastiani and Thomas T. Perls of Boston University, said they have learned of a defect in part of the equipment they used to analyze 7 percent of the genes in their study and 17 percent of a replication set of genetic samples.

They said, "This defect may have led to incorrect genotyping" of some of the samples.

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Online: http://www.sciencemag.org/

[Associated Press]

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