The Hottest Research of 2010
Featured Analyses, March/April 2011
by Christopher King
The time has rolled around yet again for Science Watch to take its annual look back at the hottest of recent research. The tab below are the researchers who, according to citations recorded during 2010, fielded the highest number of Hot Papers published over the preceding two years. Also found in a tab below are the papers published during 2010 (excluding reviews) that were most cited by year’s end.
Andre K. Geim
Eric S. Lander
Konstantin Novoselov
Kari Stefansson
The list of 2010’s most-cited papers, while carrying the usual caveat that papers published early in the year have an obvious time advantage in accruing citations, does provide a snapshot of the research reports that were particularly quick out of the gate.
Topping the list of authors with multiple Hot Papers during 2010 is a researcher who returns from last year’s roundup. In fact In fact, Eric S. Lander, president and director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, now makes his seventh such appearance, including 1998 and a continuous run between 2001 and 2004. Ten reports to which Lander contributed—general treatments of genetic mapping and human disease along with examinations of lung cancer and other conditions—registered as "hot" during 2010. One of these, an examination of somatic copy-number alteration and cancer, appears at #17 on the list of 2010’s most-cited reports (in the table below).
Three researchers from deCODE genetics in Iceland also make the list: Augustine Kong, deCODE founder Kari Stefansson, and Unnur Thorsteinsdottir. [Note: the sequence of names within each tier is determined by average citations per Hot Paper.] The three were among the coauthors on studies devoted to genome-wide analysis of schizophrenia, obesity, and, in paper #12 for the year, type 2 diabetes.
Paper #12’s authors include another scientist featured here—one who hardly needs an introduction: Francis S. Collins, now director of the National Institutes of Health. In addition to papers on diabetes, Collins contributed to general studies involving genome-wide analysis and the genetics of common disease.
Richard Durbin of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute weighs in with nine Hot Papers on genome sequencing and analysis, including the paper ranked at #1 (Bentley, et al.) in the current Biology Top Ten.
Epidemiologist Rory Collins of the University of Oxford’s Clinical Trial Service Unit, last seen in the 2005 edition, returns to the list thanks to nine reports—among them paper #31 for the year, an examination of C-reactive protein concentration and cardiovascular risk.
Andre K. Geim of the University of Manchester makes his third consecutive year-end appearance—and his first as a Nobel laureate, after sharing the Physics prize last October with Manchester colleague Konstantin Novoselov (who, although not on this year’s list, is among Geim’s coauthors on five of his eight Hot Papers on graphene). Another materials scientist, Yang Yang of UCLA, makes the list with eight reports on polymer solar cells.
Mark J. Daly of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute returns to the list from last year (and a 2007 appearance) by virtue of eight Hot Papers reporting genomic studies of diabetes, Crohn’s disease, bipolar disorder, and other afflictions.
Meanwhile, the eight Hot Papers from Richard K. Wilson of Washington University in St. Louis include sequencing-based examinations of lung cancer, glioblastoma, and leukemia. Douglas G. Altman, of Oxford’s Centre for Statistics in Medicine, contributed to studies of bias and other problems in the reporting of randomized controlled trials.
Rounding out the list, mathematician
Juan J. Nieto, of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain,
registers with eight reports on fractional differential equations and on
models for pest-management strategy.
Scientists with Multiple HoT Papers
| Name | Institutions | Field |
Number of Hot Papers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eric S. Lander | Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard | Genetics | 10 |
| Augustine Kong | deCODE genetics | Statistics/Genetics | 9 |
| Kári Stefánsson | deCODE genetics | Genetics | 9 |
| Francis S. Collins | National Institutes of Health | Genetics | 9 |
| Richard Durbin | Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute | Bioinformatics | 9 |
| Rory Collins | CTSU, University of Oxford | Epidemiology | 9 |
| Andre K. Geim | University of Manchester | Materials | 8 |
| Unnur Thorsteinsdottir | deCODE genetics | Genetics | 8 |
| Richard K. Wilson | Washington University | Genetics | 8 |
| Mark J. Daly | Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital | Genetics | 8 |
| Yang Yang | University of California, Los Angeles | Materials | 8 |
| Douglas G. Altman | University of Oxford | Medical Statistics | 8 |
| Juan J. Nieto | U. of Santiago de Compostela | Mathematics | 8 |
| SOURCE: Thomson Reuters Hot Papers Database. | |||
The Red-Hot Research Papers of 2010
| Rank | Paper | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | K.M. Flegal, et al., "Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999-2008," JAMA, 303(3): 235-41, 20 January 2010. | 106 |
| 2 | S.B. Ng, et al., "Exome sequencing identifies the cause of a mendelian disorder," Nature Genetics, 42(1): 30-5, January 2010. | 81 |
| 3 | J.J. Qin, et al., "A human gut microbial gene catalogue established by metagenomic sequencing," Nature, 464(7285): 59-65, 4 March 2010. | 76 |
| 4 | D.F. Conrad, et al., "Origins and functional impact of copy number variation in the human genome," Nature, 464(7289): 704-12, 1 April 2010. | 75 |
| 5 | E.D. Pleasance, et al., "A comprehensive catalogue of somatic mutations from a human cancer genome," Nature, 463(7278): 191-6, 14 January 2010. | 75 |
| 6 | Y.M. Lin, et al., "100-GHz transistors from wafer-scale epitaxial graphene," Science, 327(5966): 662, 5 February 2010. | 72 |
| 7 | C.L. Ogden, et al., "Prevalence of high body mass index in US children and adolescents, 2007-2008," JAMA, 303(3): 242-9, 20 January 2010. | 68 |
| 8 | T. Vierbuchen, et al., "Direct conversion of fibroblasts to functional neurons by defined factors," Nature, 463(7284): 1035-41, 25 February 2010. | 67 |
| 9 | W.J. Percival, et al., "Baryon acoustic oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 galaxy sample," Month. Not. Royal Astron. Soc., 401(4): 2148-68, 1 February 2010. | 66 |
| 10 | Y.Y. Liang, et al., "For the bright future—Bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells with power conversion efficiency of 7.4%," Adv. Materials, 22(20): E135, 25 May 2010. | 65 |
| 11 | H.N. Ginsberg, et al., "Effects of combination lipid therapy in type 2 diabetes mellitus," New Engl. J. Med., 362(17): 1563-74, 29 April 2010. | 65 |
| 12 | J. Dupuis, et al., "New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk," Nature Genetics, 42(2): 105-16, February 2010 | 64 |
| 13 | M. Costanzo, et al., "The genetic landscape of a cell," Science, 327(5964): 425-31, 22 January 2010. | 64 |
| 14 | S.P. Dickson, et al., "Rare variants create synthetic genome-wide associations," PLoS Biol., 8(1): e1000294, January 2010. | 64 |
| 15 | J. Schmutz, et al., "Genome sequence of the palaeopolyploid soybean," Nature, 463(7278): 178-83, 14 January 2010. | 63 |
| 16 | E.D. Pleasance, et al., "A small-cell lung cancer genome with complex signatures of tobacco exposure," Nature, 463(7278): 184-90, 14 January 2010. | 63 |
| 17 | R. Beroukhim, et al., "The landscape of somatic copy-number alteration across human cancers," Nature, 463(7283): 899-905, 18 February 2010. | 61 |
| 18 | S. Geisler, et al., "PINK1/Parkin-mediated mitophagy is dependent on VDAC1 and p62/SQSTM1," Nature Cell Biol., 12(2): 119-31, February 2010. | 59 |
| 19 | R.E. Lanford, et al., "Therapeutic silencing of microRNA-122 in primates with chronic hepatitis C virus infection," Science, 327(5962): 198-201, 8 January 2010. | 59 |
| 20 | J.H. Werren, et al., "Functional and evolutionary insights from the genomes of three parasitoid Nasonia species," Science, 327(5963): 343-8, 15 January 2010. | 55 |
| 21 | M.C. Hogan, et al., "Maternal mortality for 181 countries, 1980-2008: A systematic analysis of progress toward Millennium Development Goal 5," Lancet, 375(9726): 1609-23, 8 May 2010. | 54 |
| 22 | N. Bhutani, et al., "Reprogramming towards pluripotency requires AID-dependent DNA demethylation," Nature, 463(7284): 1042-7, 25 February 2010. | 52 |
| 23 | C. Popp, et al., "Genome-wide erasure of DNA methylation in mouse primordial germ cells is affected by AID deficiency," Nature, 463(7284): 1101-5, 25 February 2010. | 52 |
| 24 | S.J. Heidorn, et al., "Kinase-dead BRAF and oncogenic RAS cooperate to drive tumor progression through CRAF," Cell, 140(2): 209-21, 22 January 2010. | 52 |
| 25 | W.C. Cushman, et al., "Effects of intensive blood-pressure control in type 2 diabetes mellitus," New Engl. J. Med., 362(17): 1575-85, 29 April 2010. | 51 |
| 26 | M. Pacholec, et al., "SRT1720, SRT2183, SRT1460, and resveratrol are not direct activators of SIRT1," J. Biol. Chem., 285(11): 8340-51, 12 March 2010. | 50 |
| 27 | C.R. Jack, et al., "Hypothetical model of dynamic biomarkers of the Alzheimer’s pathological cascade," Lancet Neurology, 9(1): 119-28, January 2010. | 50 |
| 28 | E. Miller, et al., "Incidence of 2009 pandemic influenza A H1N1 infection in England: a cross-sectional serological study," Lancet, 375(9720): 1100-8, March-April 2010. | 49 |
| 29 | J. Ederle, et al., "Carotid artery stenting compared with endarterectomy in patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis (International Carotid Stenting Study): An interim analysis of a randomised controlled trial," Lancet, 375(9719): 985-97, 20 March 2010. | 47 |
| 30 | L. Kappos, et al., "A placebo-controlled trial of oral fingolimod in relapsing multiple sclerosis," New Engl. J. Med., 362(5): 387-401, 4 February 2010. | 46 |
| 31 | S. Kaptoge, et al.,2010.</p></td> Lancet, 375(9709): 132-40, 9 January 2010. | 46 |
| 32 | T. Mitsudomi, et al., "Gefitinib versus cisplatin plus docetaxel in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer harbouring mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (WJTOG3405): An open label, randomised phase 3 trial," Lancet, 11(2): 121-8, February 2010. | 45 |
| 33 | D.P. Narendra, et al., "PINK1 is selectively stabilized on impaired mitochondria to activate Parkin," PLoS Biol., 8(1): No. e1000298, January 2010. | 45 |
| 34 | C.N. Sternberg, et al., "Pazopanib in locally advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma: Results of a randomized phase III trial," J. Clin. Oncol., 28(6): 1061-8, 20 February 2010. | 44 |
| 35 | J.C. Fournier, et al., "Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity: A patient-level meta-analysis," JAMA, 303(1): 47-53, 6 January 2010. | 44 |
| 36 | C. Vives-Bauza, et al., "PINK1-dependent recruitment of Parkin to mitochondria in mitophagy," PNAS, 107(1): 378-83, 5 January 2010. | 44 |
| 37 | R. Drmanac, et al., "Human genome sequencing using unchained base reads on self-assembling DNA nanoarrays," Science, 327(5961): 78-81, 1 January 2010. | 44 |
| 38 | 38 J.A. Cohen, et al., "Oral fingolimod or intramuscular interferon for relapsing multiple sclerosis," New Engl. J. Med., 362(5): 402-15, 4 February 2010. | 43 |
| 39 | R.B. Zhou, et al., "Thioredoxin-interacting protein links oxidative stress inflammasome activation," Nature Immunoogy, 11(2): 136-40, February 2010. | 43 |
| 40 | J.R. Lupski, et al., "Whole-genome sequencing in a patient with Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy," New Engl. J. Med., 362(13): 1181-91, 1 April 2010. | 41 |
| 41 | J.P Vogel, et al., "Genome sequencing and analysis of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon," Nature, 463(7282): 763-8, 11 February 2010. | 41 |
| 42 | R.G.W. Herhaak, et al., "Integrated genomic analysis identifies clinically relevant subtypes of glioblastoma characterized by abnormalities in PDGFRA, IDH1, EGFR, and NF1," Cancer Cell, 17(1): 98-110, 19 January 2010. | 40 |
| SOURCE: Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge® (Citations recorded as of late December 2010). | ||