In a letter to Nature (see pages 297-), current and former researchers at Genentech say that they “categorically deny” accusations by their former colleague, Peter Seeburg, that data on the sequencing of a gene for human growth hormone published in a key paper in the journal in 1979 (see Nature 281, 544–548; 1979) were false, “and that he knew they were false when the paper was submitted”.

In response, Seeburg repeats an admission made during recent court proceedings (see above) that the work made use of a cDNA clone that had originated at the University of California, San Francisco, and writes “I deeply regret that, contrary to the principles of scientific endeavour, the Nature paper contains a technical inaccuracy”.

The Genentech authors, who were the co-authors of the original paper and say that they stand by its content, say that Seeburg is being “intellectually dishonest” in claiming that it is permissible to make up data on the basis of “similar work”, and in describing a non-existent plasmid as a “technical inaccuracy”. Seeburg says “all scientific conclusions of the paper are correct”.