by Bill Snyder
Nine current faculty members of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have made this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited most frequently by other researchers.
They are among 6,938 researchers around the world identified Nov. 15 by the global analytics firm Clarivate whose publications rank in the top 1% by citations for field of research and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.
“The Highly Cited Researchers list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers who are having a significant impact on the research community as evidenced by the rate at which their work is being cited by their peers,” said David Pendlebury, head of Research Analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information.
“These individuals are helping to transform human ingenuity into our world’s greatest breakthroughs, and it is an honor to celebrate their achievements,” he said.
VUSM researchers on this year’s list include:
Justin Balko, PharmD, PhD, Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research, and leader of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) Breast Cancer Research Program, who studies ways to increase the activity of the immune system to eliminate cancer.
Mariana Xavier Byndloss, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, who is exploring links between obesity, the gut microbiota, and host metabolism that increase the risk for diseases like colorectal cancer.
James Crowe Jr., MD, Ann Scott Carell Professor, professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, who has pioneered development of monoclonal antibodies to prevent and treat viral diseases including COVID-19.
Mark Denison, MD, the Edward Claiborne Stahlman Chair in Pediatric Physiology and Cell Metabolism, and an internationally known authority on coronavirus biology, whose lab has aided development of antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19.
David Harrison, MD, Betty and Jack Bailey Professor of Cardiology, and director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, whose research has advanced understanding of how T-cell (lymphocyte) activation contributes to hypertension.
Douglas Johnson, MD, MSCI, associate professor of Medicine, holder of the Susan and Luke Simons Directorship, and director of Precision Oncology in the VICC, who is studying new immune and targeted therapies for melanoma.
Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Immunobiology, and director of the Center for Immunology, whose studies of lymphocyte metabolism are shedding light on inflammatory diseases like lupus and on anti-tumor immunity.
Dan Roden, MD, Sam L. Clark, MD, PhD Chair, professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Biomedical Informatics, Senior Vice President for Personalized Medicine, who is a leader in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.
C. Michael Stein, MBChB, the Dan May Professor and professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, whose expertise in clinical pharmacogenomics has advanced understanding of why individuals differ in their responses to medications.
Two faculty members from Vanderbilt Peabody College also made this year’s Web of Science highly cited list. They are Judy Garber, PhD, professor of Psychology & Human Development, and Kristopher Preacher, PhD, Lois Autrey Betts Chair in Education and Human Development.
Also on the list, Shihong Lin, PhD, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering in the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering.
The United States is the institutional home to 38.3% of this year’s highly cited researchers, followed by Mainland China with 16.2%, and the United Kingdom with 8.0%.