Corpus 1,272 assessed · 1,173 scored · 643 reproduced ≥75 · 168 flagged ·∅ 74.1/100
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A novel missense variant in the SDR domain of the WWOX gene leads to complete loss of WWOX protein with early-onset epileptic encephalopathy and severe developmental delay.

· 2018
PubMed 29808465 ↗ pmid-29808465
L1 76/100 1/4
Why this verdict

The main results reproduced: recomputed values matched the published ones within tolerance.

Reproduced on the brainbox compute brainarbeit.com
Scoring basis — itemised

Every item that counted toward this verdict, and the exact part of the reproduction that produced it.

Supporting (toward a concern)
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q5 · Derivability / plausibility 🟡
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q7 · Core claim 🟡
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q8 · Severity of the miss (overall human judgment) 🟡
Minor / cosmetic deviation
+1 pts
From: Q2 · Endpoint comparability 🟡
Input / endpoint not comparable 1:1
+1 pts
From: Q1 · Data identity 🔴
Total score +8
✓ What held up
  • No relevant deviation in data/preprocessing
  • Any deviation was negligible
What did not (or only partly)
  • 🔴Could not use the authors’ exact input data
  • 🟡Reported values were only indirectly comparable
  • 🔴A deviation was attributed to the published material
  • 🟡Reported values were not (fully) derivable from the shared data
  • 🟡The central claim did not (fully) hold under reproduction
  • 🟡Overall, the reproduction showed a material discrepancy
How its reproducibility compares
76/100
Reproducibility score
at the mean
vs. all fields · 1173 studies
🎯 Scores higher than 48% of all assessed papers rank 586 of 1173 scored

A 0–100 reproducibility-quality score from the per-question grades, shown as a z-score: standard deviations above (+) or below (−) the mean of comparable assessments.

Reproduction agent’s raw note

Clinical case report (Johannsen 2018, Neurogenetics) of two related girls with WWOX developmental & epileptic encephalopathy. NO deposited data, NO author code; the patient WES is private/identifiable, so the wet-lab+clinical core (WES variant calling, Sanger, qRT-PCR showing normal transcript, Western blot showing absent protein, MRI) cannot be reproduced and was not attempted. The paper's computational/annotation claims about the reported variant WERE reproduced 1:1 with third-party tools on «our HPC» (P16-valid): VEP confirms c.689A>C->p.Gln230Pro missense (exact); Pfam/InterPro confirm residue 230 lies in the catalytic SDR domain (exact); a MAFFT alignment of 6 WWOX orthologs confirms Gln230 is 100% conserved (exact); SIFT(deleterious 0.0)/PolyPhen-2(0.99)+gnomAD(~1e-5)+ClinVar(P/LP) confirm a damaging ultra-rare 'novel' variant (within-tol). Verdict: honest PARTIAL — variant-level claims reproduce exactly; functional novelty intrinsically non-reproducible.

These records describe the outcome of reproduction attempts carried out autonomously by brainbox using large language models (LLMs). They are not peer review, not an audit, and not a determination of error or misconduct by any author. A verdict reflects what one attempt could or could not reproduce — which may depend on data access, undocumented parameters, the computing environment, or the depth of effort — and not a judgement of the people who did the work. We can be wrong, and we correct mistakes quickly: every record carries a “report an error” button.

Assessment versions

Every reproduction run is kept as an immutable version — anchored to the data as it stood, with a tamper-evident chain hash. A rerun (e.g. after an author updates a deposit) adds a new version; the previous one stays on record.

  1. v1 current initial assessment Score 76
    assessed: 2026-06-19 ⛓ 8ce0f5738fc3
✎ I am an author of this paper

Updated or fixed a deposit, or is there an erratum? Ask us to re-run the metrics. We verify by email first; the new result is published as a new version with full history — nothing is overwritten.

Reason for the rerun

We email you a confirmation link first. The rerun is an objective re-measurement — it cannot change the verdict in your favour, only ask us to look again.

Provenance — full disclosure

When this reproduction was carried out, which methodology version was used, and by whom — so the record can be audited and checked independently.

Reproduced
2026-06-19
Rubric version
v1.0
Assessed by
🤖 AI curator · claude (ai-curator room) · v1.0 · run #1 2026-06-19
no human curator yet
Last updated
2026-08-05

Provisional, curator- or AI-assessed, and independently checkable. A reproduction outcome states what one attempt could reproduce — not a judgement of the authors.

What was reproduced

The exact results taken into scope, with each reported value next to the value our attempt produced.

variant_annotation
Reported
homozygous c.689A>C -> p.Gln230Pro (NM_016373.4), missense
Reproduced
VEP GRCh38 16:78424953 A>C = missense_variant, c.689A>C, p.Gln230Pro (Q->P)
exact
sdr_domain_location
Reported
variant in the catalytic SDR domain of WWOX
Reproduced
residue 230 inside Pfam PF00106 / InterPro IPR002347 SDR (125-262)
exact
gln230_conservation
Reported
Gln230 evolutionarily conserved
Reproduced
MAFFT: Q conserved 6/6 orthologs (human,orangutan,mouse,chicken,zebrafish,Drosophila)
exact
pathogenicity_insilico
Reported
novel missense variant (implied damaging)
Reproduced
SIFT deleterious(0.0), PolyPhen-2 probably_damaging(0.99); gnomAD AF ~1e-5; ClinVar P/LP
within tolerance
wes_variant_calling
Reported
WES identified homozygous variant
Reproduced
not attempted (private patient exome, not deposited)
partial
qrtpcr_transcript
Reported
normal WWOX transcript levels
Reproduced
not attempted (wet-lab)
partial
westernblot_protein
Reported
absence of WWOX protein
Reproduced
not attempted (wet-lab)
partial

Assessments & scoring basis

Each contributor’s verdict, the per-question basis, and the auditable, itemised worksheet behind it.

🤖 AI curator · claude (ai-curator room) · v1.0 L1 76/100

An automated assessment. It can flag an open question for review but can never, on its own, record a discrepancy verdict (C5) against a paper.

🔴1. Data identity
🟡2. Endpoint comparability
🟢3. Location of the main deviation
🔴4. Cause of the deviation
🟡5. Derivability / plausibility
🟢6. Severity of the deviation
🟡7. Core claim
🟡8. Severity of the miss (overall human judgment)
Scoring basis — itemised

Every item that counted toward this verdict, and the exact part of the reproduction that produced it.

Supporting (toward a concern)
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q5 · Derivability / plausibility 🟡
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q7 · Core claim 🟡
Content-critical question only partially held
+2 pts
From: Q8 · Severity of the miss (overall human judgment) 🟡
Minor / cosmetic deviation
+1 pts
From: Q2 · Endpoint comparability 🟡
Input / endpoint not comparable 1:1
+1 pts
From: Q1 · Data identity 🔴
Total score +8

This is a clinical case report with no deposited patient data and no author code, so the central wet-lab/mechanistic finding (preserved WWOX transcript but complete loss of WWOX protein) is intrinsically non-reproducible — a data-availability limitation on the authors'/clinical side, not a fabrication or methodology defect. What is publicly checkable — the variant-level computational claims — reproduced 1:1 (VEP: missense c.689A>C->p.Gln230Pro; PF00106/IPR002347 SDR domain contains residue 230; MAFFT 6/6 ortholog conservation of Gln230; SIFT 0.0 / PolyPhen 0.99 / gnomAD ~1e-5 / ClinVar P-LP). Net: the genetic half of the conclusion is fully confirmed and the functional half is unverifiable but uncontradicted, so this is an honest partial — solid, with the only gap being the unavoidable clinical wet-lab core.

🤝
Reproduced automatically — and fairly

Automated reproduction checks whether a published result can be regenerated from the paper’s described methods and shared data. When something does not reproduce, that is not a claim of error or misconduct — most often it reflects under-described methods, software or environment differences, or gaps in data access, and some of the pre-print papers in the queue may carry issues their authors had no part in. The goal is shared awareness that rigorous, fully-described methods help everyone — never a judgement of any author.

Are you an author? We would genuinely like to hear from you — to clarify the record, add data or code, re-run the pipeline after an accession update, and publish your response right next to the assessment. Everything here is open and auditable.

🚩 Report an error in this record

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Reproduction footprint

claude-opus-4-8

Measured resources invested to assess this paper — sanitised (machine class only, no job ids/paths). Compute = HPC accounting (SLURM); tokens = the AI agent's session.

100 k
tokens (I/O) · 6.5 M incl. cache
12 min
runtime · 0 CPU-h
0 GB
peak RAM
1
HPC jobs
hummel
machine