Leaderboards/Protein Engineering

Protein Engineering

Last updated May 19, 2026

Rising Stars

New and hot

Rising Stars Researchers

1
Kaiyi Jiang
Brigham and Women's Hospital
432 cit.
2
Arne Schneuing
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
385 cit.
3
Xiao Yan
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
255 cit.
4
Peng Liu
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
246 cit.
5
Hongguang Liao
Hokkaido University
237 cit.
6
Hongyu Chen
Broad Institute
216 cit.
7
Amy R. Eggers
Innovative Genomics Institute
192 cit.
8
Grant M. Landwehr
Northwestern University
184 cit.
9
Fatma Kurul
Izmir University
176 cit.
10
Felix C. Raps
Princeton University
165 cit.

Rising Stars Papers

1
Rapid in silico directed evolution by a protein language model with EVOLVEpro
Science|2024
143 cit.
2
Structure-based drug design with equivariant diffusion models
Nature Computational Science|2024
153 cit.
3
Intra-condensate demixing of TDP-43 inside stress granules generates pathological aggregates
Cell|2025
84 cit.
4
Transposase-assisted target-site integration for efficient plant genome engineering
Nature|2024
81 cit.
5
Data-driven de novo design of super-adhesive hydrogels
Nature|2025
78 cit.
6
Chemical and topological design of multicapped mRNA and capped circular RNA to augment translation
Nature Biotechnology|2024
71 cit.
7
Rapid DNA unwinding accelerates genome editing by engineered CRISPR-Cas9
Cell|2024
63 cit.
8
Accelerated enzyme engineering by machine-learning guided cell-free expression
Nature Communications|2025
91 cit.
9
Nanomedicine: How nanomaterials are transforming drug delivery, bio-imaging, and diagnosis
Next Nanotechnology|2025
175 cit.
10
Emergence of a distinct mechanism of C–N bond formation in photoenzymes 
Nature|2024
54 cit.

Rising Stars Reagents

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Emerging Leaders

Gaining momentum

Emerging Leaders Researchers

1
Ali Madani
Salesforce (United States)
477 cit.
2
Hongbin Li
University of British Columbia Hospital
335 cit.
3
Gabriel J. Rocklin
Northwestern University
319 cit.
4
David R. Liu
Broad Institute
266 cit.
5
David B. Ascher
Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute
245 cit.
6
Petar Petrov
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
213 cit.
7
Philip A. Romero
University of Wisconsin–Madison
208 cit.
8
Feng Zhang
Broad Institute
194 cit.
9
Xiaoqiang Huang
Nanjing University
182 cit.
10
Anima Anandkumar
California Institute of Technology
174 cit.

Emerging Leaders Papers

1
ProGen2: Exploring the boundaries of protein language models
Cell Systems|2023
408 cit.
2
Cartilage-like protein hydrogels engineered via entanglement
Nature|2023
335 cit.
3
Mega-scale experimental analysis of protein folding stability in biology and design
Nature|2023
319 cit.
4
Phage-assisted evolution and protein engineering yield compact, efficient prime editors
Cell|2023
266 cit.
5
DDMut: predicting effects of mutations on protein stability using deep learning
Nucleic Acids Research|2023
245 cit.
6
Natural and Synthetic Polymers for Biomedical and Environmental Applications
Polymers|2024
426 cit.
7
Self-driving laboratories to autonomously navigate the protein fitness landscape
Nature Chemical Engineering|2024
166 cit.
8
Fanzor is a eukaryotic programmable RNA-guided endonuclease
Nature|2023
194 cit.
9
A light-driven enzymatic enantioselective radical acylation
Nature|2023
182 cit.
10
State-specific protein–ligand complex structure prediction with a multiscale deep generative model
Nature Machine Intelligence|2024
139 cit.

Emerging Leaders Reagents

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All-Time Leaders

The canon

All-Time Leaders Researchers

1
Matthew J. A. Wood
University of Oxford
14.3k cit.
2
Stanislas Leibler
Princeton University
14.2k cit.
3
David R. Liu
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
12.4k cit.
4
David L. Kaplan
Tufts University
10k cit.
5
Steven W. Elmore
AbbVie (United States)
9k cit.
6
Virginijus Šikšnys
Vilnius University
8.4k cit.
7
Feng Zhang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
7.5k cit.
8
Geoffrey S. Waldo
Los Alamos National Laboratory
7.3k cit.
9
Roel Nusse
Stanford University
6.7k cit.
10
M. E. J. Newman
Santa Fe Institute
6.6k cit.

All-Time Leaders Papers

1
Delivery of siRNA to the mouse brain by systemic injection of targeted exosomes
Nature Biotechnology|2011
4.8k cit.
2
A synthetic oscillatory network of transcriptional regulators
Nature|2000
4.7k cit.
3
Programmable base editing of A•T to G•C in genomic DNA without DNA cleavage
Nature|2017
4.2k cit.
4
ABT-199, a potent and selective BCL-2 inhibitor, achieves antitumor activity while sparing platelets
Nature Medicine|2013
3k cit.
5
Cas9–crRNA ribonucleoprotein complex mediates specific DNA cleavage for adaptive immunity in bacteria
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|2012
2.8k cit.
6
Rationally engineered Cas9 nucleases with improved specificity
Science|2015
2.5k cit.
7
Materials fabrication from Bombyx mori silk fibroin
Nature Protocols|2011
3k cit.
8
Engineering and characterization of a superfolder green fluorescent protein
Nature Biotechnology|2005
2.4k cit.
9
Wnt proteins are lipid-modified and can act as stem cell growth factors
Nature|2003
2.2k cit.
10
Hierarchical structure and the prediction of missing links in networks
Nature|2008
2.2k cit.

All-Time Leaders Reagents

Coming soon

Indexing Protein Engineering Reagents

Citation data for reagents in this field is currently compiling.