In this week's Science, the journal has named the genome-editing technology CRISPR as its 2015 breakthrough of the year. In an editorial, Editor-in-Chief Marcia McNutt noted that CRISPR has already led to significant accomplishments across biological disciplines, and that it is expected to revolutionize biological research as it matures. "Science has been tracking genome editing since the initial successes with zinc fingers," she writes, and in 2013 named CRISPR as a runner up for breakthrough of the year behind cancer immunotherapy. "Our hope is that in two years’ time, CRISPR will have brought to many diverse fields in biology the enduring level of excitement and optimism that immunotherapy has brought to cancer patients."
And in Science Translational Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's Michael Stein discusses how rising administrative requirements are imposing a burden on academic clinical scientists by taking their attention away from research. He proposes strategies to reduce "death by a thousand clicks" such as avoiding the duplication of information across institutional review boards, clinical trial registration, and PubMed, as well as eliminating administrative requirements for grant applications prior to funding.