"Molecular scissors" named Science's 2015 "Breakthrough of the Year"

The prestigious U.S. journal Science on Thursday chose a popular gene editing tool called CRISPR, which acts as a type of molecular scissors able to selectively trim away unwanted genome parts and replace it with new DNA stretches, as the 2015 Breakthrough of the Year.

It's an "unprecedented selection," the magazine's Managing News Editor John Travis said, given that the three-year-old technique appeared twice before among Science's top 10 breakthroughs, in 2012 and 2013, and is the only one to subsequently be elevated to the year's most groundbreaking scientific achievement status.

The 2015 research advances using CRISPR that warranted this recognition have been on multiple fronts, the journal said.

For example, researchers successfully used the tool to remove potentially harmful DNA sequences at 62 locations in the pig genome this year, overcoming a major hurdle for humans to receive life-saving organ transplants from pigs.

Meanwhile, CRISPR was used to develop a long-sought gene drive, a system that allows the rapid transmission of an introduced gene throughout insect populations faster than natural selection would permit. Researchers believed such a system could help eliminate pests or the diseases they carry, including creating malaria-blocking mosquitoes.

In April, Chinese researchers described their use of the technology to edit nonviable human embryos from a fertility clinic, in a world first that prompted an international summit this month in Washington, D.C., to discuss human gene editing.

There are already several existing gene editing methods, but the superior ability of CRISPR to deliver a gene to the right spot compared to its competitors as well as its low cost and ease of use have allowed thousands of labs, high school students, and "biohackers" alike to begin exploiting the new technique, Science noted.

Bioethicist Hank Greely of the Stanford University compared CRISPR to the Model T Ford.

"The Model T wasn't the first car, but it changed the way we drive, work, and live," Greely told the New Yorker. "CRISPR has made a difficult process cheap and reliable. It's incredibly precise. But an important part of the history of molecular biology is the history of editing genes."

"It's only slightly hyperbolic to say that if scientists can dream of a genetic manipulation, CRISPR can now make it happen," Travis said. "For better or worse, we all now live in CRISPR's world."

The nine other major scientific achievements of 2015 selected by Science included:

The voyage of the New Horizons spacecraft past Pluto in July;

The lymphatic system exists in the brain;

Engineering yeast to produce opiates;

Experimental confirmation of the correlation in the quantum state of two widely separated particles, a process called "entanglement";

Improvements in seismic imaging provided long-sought confirmation of the existence of mantle plumes, responsible for midplate volcanoes such as Hawaii;

The successful development of an Ebola vaccine;

Improving reproducibility for psychological science;

A new member of the human family was revealed from a hidden cave in South Africa harboring 1500 human fossils;

DNA sequencing of Kennewick Man, a 8,500-year-old skeleton found in 1996 in Washington state, showed that today's Native Americans are direct descendants of Asian people who crossed the Bering land bridge at least 15,000 years ago. Endit