Four Buck professors recognized as among most highly cited researchers in the world

Buck professors Eric Verdin, Judith Campisi, Martin Brand and Claudio Hetz are included in the annual Highly Cited Researchers list compiled by Clarivate. The list identifies researchers who demonstrate “significant influence in their chosen field or fields through publication of multiple highly cited papers.” The publications used in the compilation rank in the top 1 percent of citations worldwide.

“This list identifies and celebrates exceptional individual researchers at the Buck Institute 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. The research they have contributed is fueling the innovation, sustainability, health and security that is key for our society’s future,” says David Pendlebury, senior citation analyst at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate.

This year’s list includes 6,602 researchers in all scientific fields from more than 70 countries. Consistent production of highly cited reports indicates that the work of these researchers has been repeatedly judged by their peers to be of notable significance and utility, as based on data from the Web of Science, the world’s largest publisher-neutral citation index, which includes nearly 2.1 billion cited references going back to 1900.   

Buck President and CEO, Eric Verdin, MD, runs a lab focused on the role of epigenetic regulators in the aging process. His group was the first to clone a family of enzymes call HDACs which regulate histone acetylation. Dr. Verdin studies how metabolism, diet, and small molecules regulate the activity of HDACs and sirtuins, and thereby the aging process itself and its associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Dr. Verdin is an elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians.

Professor Judith Campisi, PhD, is an internationally recognized pioneer for her work on a stress response known as cellular senescence, which is one of the major drivers of age-related diseases. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Campisi’s early work was focused on the role of cellular senescence in suppressing cancer. From this work, she soon became convinced that senescent cells also contributed to aging. Her lab was the first to identify the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), the phenomena now associated with chronic low level inflammation. Dr. Campisi has received numerous award for her research including two MERIT awards from the National Institute on Aging, as well as awards from the Gerontological Society of America and the American Federation for Aging Research. She is also a recipient of the Longevity Prize from the IPSEN Foundation

Professor Martin Brand, PhD, has long been recognized for his major contributions to understanding the mechanisms of energy transformation and mechanisms of energetic inefficiency and free radical production and their roles in evolution, physiology, and the diseases of aging.  His lab is focused on the role of mitochondria in health, disease and aging. His lab has pioneered new approaches to better understand mitochondrial functional and dysfunction within cells.  Dr. Brand’s research has been recognized with the Keilin Medal of the Biochemical Society and a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation, as well as with his election as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor in residence, Claudio Hetz, PhD, is focused on understanding the molecular basis of protein folding stress, its relationship to pathological conditions affecting the nervous system including ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, and the development of prototypic strategies to prevent neuronal damage.  One of his major areas of biotechnological development is gene therapy. In addition to his work at the Buck, Dr. Hetz is also a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile. He has received the KIA International Award, FEBS Anniversary Prize, and the UNESCO Young Scientist Prize as outstanding young scientist in Latin America.