Seven Salk scientists named among best and most highly cited researchers in the world

November 15, 2023

Seven Salk scientists named among best and most highly cited researchers in the world

November 15, 2023

LA JOLLA—Salk Professors Joseph Ecker, Ronald Evans, Satchidananda Panda, Rusty Gage, and Kay Tye, as well as Assistant Professor Jesse Dixon, have been named to the Highly Cited Researchers list by Clarivate. The 2023 list includes 6,849 researchers from 67 countries, all of whom demonstrate “significant and broad influence reflected in their publication of multiple highly cited papers over the last decade.” This is the ninth consecutive year that Ecker and Gage have made the list. Joseph Nery, a research assistant II in the Ecker lab, was also included on the list.

“The Highly Cited Researchers list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at Salk, whose significant and broad influence in their fields translates to impact in their research community and innovations that make the world healthier, more sustainable, and more secure,” says David Pendlebury, Head of Research Analysis at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. “Their contributions resonate far beyond their individual achievements, strengthening the foundation of excellence and innovation in research.”

Joseph Ecker
Ecker is a professor in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, the director of the Genomic Analysis Laboratory, the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His current research focuses on genomic and epigenomic regulation in plants and mammals and the application of DNA sequencing technologies for genome-wide analysis of DNA methylation, chromatin conformation, transcription, and gene function in single cells.

Ronald Evans
Evans is a professor, the director of the Gene Expression Laboratory, and the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology. An expert in the essential roles of hormone receptors in reproduction, growth, and metabolism, Evans has identified novel pathways involved in cancer and metabolic diseases that are targetable by drugs that activate these receptors. More than a dozen approved drugs have been developed with Evans' technology for the treatment of leukemia, prostate cancer, breast cancer, liver disease, diabetes, and hypertension.

Satchidananda Panda
Panda is a professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory and the director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Salk. He aims to understand how diet, exercise, and sleep affect cells and molecules in our body and to leverage this knowledge to elevate performance and reduce chronic diseases.

Rusty Gage
Gage is a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Disease, and the former president of the Salk Institute. He is a neuroscientist who studies the plasticity, adaptability, and diversity of the brain. By reprogramming human skin cells and other cells from patients with neurologic and psychiatric diseases into induced pluripotent stem cells, induced neurons, and organoids, his work is deciphering the progression and mechanisms that lead to disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disease, depression, and autism spectrum disorder.

Kay Tye
Tye is a professor in the Systems Neurobiology Laboratory and the Wylie Vale Chair. She seeks to understand the neural-circuit basis of emotion that leads to motivated behaviors such as social interaction, reward-seeking, and avoidance. Her findings may help to inform treatments for a multitude of neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and impairments in social behavior.

Jesse Dixon
Dixon, a physician-scientist, is an assistant professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory and a member of the Salk Cancer Center faculty. He is a molecular biologist who uses molecular and computational approaches to explore how our genomes are organized in cells and how abnormal genome folding leads to human diseases such as cancer. His team is also developing new methods to study gene organization and gene function in single cells.

Joseph Nery
Nery is a research assistant in the Ecker lab. He has been at the Salk Institute since 2006, where he specializes in epigenetics and runs computational analyses for the lab.