Following the progress of the magnetic biology paper "Snatching" the dispute: Studies say MagR cannot achieve magnetic inheritance.

An academic dispute between Tsinghua University and Peking University, China's top institutions of higher learning, has taken on a new look.
Following the dispute over magnetic biology, Lu Bai, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Medicine, and Xie Can, a researcher at Peking University's School of Life Sciences, published a new paper online today (March 16) in the international academic journal Frontiers in Neural Circuits, which concluded in the opposite direction to that of Zhang Shengjia, a previously introduced scholar at Tsinghua University.
previously, Lu Bai had told the media that Zhang Sheng's paper "Magnetic Genetics: Using magnetically acceptor proteins, using magnetic stimulation to activate the activity of neurons over long distances and non-invasively (Magnetogenetics: remote non-invasive magnetically activated of neuronal activity with with a magnetceptor) the main experimental results are difficult to repeat.
To ensure the accuracy of the results, the newly published paper examined the cell line mentioned in Zhang Shengjia's paper, as well as more types of cell lineages, such as back root nerve cells (DRGN); Magnetic genetics, failure!"After we started working on this topic, a paper claims that MagR does achieve magnetic genetics.
but our conclusions are the opposite.
Although various magnetic stimulation methods were tried and calcium ion signals in a variety of cells were systematically detected, we found that even if HEK cells, back root nerve cells (DRGN) and hema body neurons were allowed to express MagR separately, they could not react to magnetic field stimuli, i.e. no changes in calcium ion signals.
," Lu Bai and Xie Can wrote in their new paper.
Lu Bai and Xie Can's new paper concludes that, contrary to Zhang Sheng's family, some people are naturally very directional, and scientists believe that this may be related to proteins in the body that sense the Earth's magnetic field - magnetic induction proteins or magnetic lievator proteins.
is also because of the magnetic protein, pigeons can remember the direction of home, can return home from a distance;
so far, the protein most likely to be a magnetic receptor has been MagR.
even claim that the gene could win the Nobel Prize, but it has sparked a "bloody" academic dispute in China's academic circles, particularly at Tsinghua University and Peking University, two of the country's top universities.
has published two academic papers around MagR, Tsinghua and Peking University.
, a third related academic paper was published online.
author of the paper is Lu Bai, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Medicine, and Xie Can, a researcher at Peking University's School of Life Sciences.
More than a year ago, on September 14, 2015, Zhang Shengjia, as the author of the newsletter and as a signed research unit of the Tsinghua-North University Joint Center for Life Sciences, published the aforementioned "Magnetic Genetics" paper in the English edition of the Scientific Bulletin, a semi-monthly journal co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
this is the first academic paper on MagR in both schools.
the paper, Zhang called MagR a MAR and claimed that he had speculated about MagR's function.
But Xie Can accused Zhang Shengjia of violating academic ethics, in a cooperation project, from Xie Can laboratory to obtain the core experimental material MagR gene and experimental instruments, but privately "snatched" the paper, and did not give Xie Can signed.
Seven, Lu Bai expressed support for Xie Can, and said, "Using Xie Can's genes to do magnetic genetics is the intellectual product of Lu Bai's laboratory", when Lu Bai Laboratory and Xie Can Laboratory are working together on related topics.
Zhang Sheng's family to participate in the middle, but "snatched" the relevant research results.
November 17, 2015, Xie Can published a research paper entitled "A Magnetic Protein Biocompass" online in nature Materials, a leading international academic journal.
sequence information of MagR gene has long been found by foreign scholars, but its function has not been solved.
Xie Can's thesis systematically expounds the magnetic biology function of magR gene for the first time.
this is the second academic paper on the MagR gene in Tsinghua university and Peking University.
published online today is the third, the new paper's co-author is Lu Bai.
Xiecan is also one of the authors of the paper.
the paper, "MagR does not cause cells to respond to magnetic stimuli in calcium" (MagR Alone Is Is Is Made to Cellular Calcium Responses to Magnetic Stimulation).
in other words, magnetic genetics cannot be achieved by the MagR gene alone.
use of light to influence and alter the physiological state of cells, and even the behavior of organisms, which is photogenetics technology.
would be a huge leap forward if magnetic fields were used to control cells or organisms, which is magnetic genetics.
light control requires the installation of fiber optic cables to ensure that light penetrates and reachs cells, ensuring the intensity and accuracy of light.
magnetic control technology does not require at least fiber optic cables.
the paper, the advantages of magnetic genetics are obvious compared to photogenetics.
but has been lacking a tool for magnetic genetics.
MagR, the protein that interacts with cryptoprotein Cry, seems to be able to do this.
"After we started working on this topic, a paper claimed that MagR did achieve magnetic genetics.
but our conclusions are the opposite.
Although a variety of magnetic stimulation methods were tried and calcium ion signals were systematically detected in cells, we found that even if HEK cells, back-root nerve cells (DRGN) and hema neuron cells were allowed to express MagR separately, they could not react to magnetic field stimulation and there was no change in calcium ion signals. "Conversely, when the neurons of the hema body express MagR and ChR (photosensitive channel proteins) at the same time, these cells can respond to light stimuli - calcium ion signals change, but remain indifferent to magnetic field stimulation," Lu Bai and Xie Can's new paper writes.
" the researchers concluded, it can be seen that MagR is not enough for cells to respond to magnetic fields - changes in calcium ion signals.
in Zhang Shengjia's September 2015 paper, researchers led by Zhang Shengjia claimed to have achieved magnetic genetics through the MagR gene, which Zhang's paper calls the "MAR" gene.
results are significant: when transferred to the MagR gene, HEK-293 cells are magnetically stimulated to produce an internal flow of calcium ions, i.e. changes in the signal of calcium ions in the cells.
In addition to changes in calcium ion signals, Zhang Shengjia's paper also claims that when the neuron cells of the hema body express MagR, their neuron activity can be controlled by a magnetic field - on or off;
Lubai's paper points out three suspicious features of Zhang Shengjia's experimental results The newly published paper does not verify whether MagR online worms play a role, but points out some suspicious features in Zhang Sheng's paper.
one: The newly published paper says Zhang Shengjia's paper clearly describes how magnetic stimulation is applied to cells.
the paper showed that they stimulated cells with magnetic fields for up to seven minutes.
magnetic stimulators generate heat that can change the temperature of cells, causing them to observe changes in calcium ion signals within cells.
, that is, this is a false positive result.
: The newly published paper says Figures 1E and 2C of Zhang Shengjia's paper show a strange result: calcium signals in HEK293 cells (including MagR) continue to rise after magnetic stimulation is terminated.
suggests that their cells may not be healthy.
: The results of the calcium intraflow experiment of the haima neurons in Zhang Sheng's paper were delayed by up to 7.8 seconds after magnetic stimulation, according to a new paper.
this is unusual.
all the reported cellular changes caused by nerve stimuli (e.g. electricity, chemistry, light, machinery, etc.) in the world so far have occurred on a millisecond scale.
of course, neuron cells also have random spontaneous discharge activity.
ion changes reported by Long Xiaoyang and others may be just a random discharge activity of neuron cells.
in addition, the new paper says, "The audacious claim claims that this non-invasive approach could replace photogenetics as a new neurodefluulation tool."
has led many researchers around the world to try to repeat the work and the results, but so far there have been no repeats of successful reports.
the paper has not been withdrawn in 2015, Zhang Shengjia "snatching" paper has just been published online, Xie Can, Lu Bai and Tsinghua University and Peking University have asked for the withdrawal of the manuscript.
more than a year later, the paper has not been withdrawn.
Said that Zhang Shengjia, who is in transition, was involved in the magnetic biology research project in his own laboratory, which was conducted in collaboration with Xie Can, a researcher at Peking University.
without the permission of Lu Bai and Xie Can, Zhang Sheng used the above-mentioned research data to "snatch" the research paper, but did not give Lu Bai and Xie Can signed.
Zhang's family denies all of Lu Bai's allegations.
the dispute between the three men, Tsinghua University and Peking University set up separate investigation teams, the final results of which were not made public.
but Tsinghua University stopped bringing in Zhang Shengjia, who has now left Tsinghua.
Lubai told the media that the main experimental results in Zhang's magnetic genetics paper are difficult to repeat.
, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Shanghai Institute of Life Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is one of many researchers who thanked Zhang Shengjia in his controversial paper.
For the academic dispute between Lu Bai, Xie Can and Zhang Shengjia, on June 12, 2016, Pu Muming, in an exclusive interview with the media, responded to Yu News by saying, "It turned out to be very clear: an experiment was done in Lubai Laboratory, Zhang Shengjia did, he wanted to publish, Lu Bai disagreed."
Zhang Sheng's family took Xie Can's things to do experiments, do not give Xie Can credit.
's as simple as that.
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