Our ranking of biotech's top translational researchers (Table 1) is based on total patents (US and Europe) granted in 2017; the most-cited patent for the past five years; and the H-index, a method for determining the impact of a scientist's body of published work (higher means more impact). Robert Langer, of MIT, is again at the top; UPenn's James Wilson moved up eight places from 2016; UT Southwestern's Joseph Ready joins the list, as do a trio of researchers from the University of Tokyo. MIT's Feng Zhang dominates the ranking of most-cited patents (Table 2), with CRISPR contributing to nucleic acid therapy as the biggest focus for most-cited patents (Fig. 1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huggett, B., Paisner, K. Top 20 translational researchers of 2017. Nat Biotechnol 36, 798 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4237
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4237