Jack W. Szostak

58.6k total citations · 31 hit papers
364 papers, 45.2k citations indexed

About

Jack W. Szostak is a scholar working on Molecular Biology, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Genetics. According to data from OpenAlex, Jack W. Szostak has authored 364 papers receiving a total of 45.2k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 336 papers in Molecular Biology, 129 papers in Astronomy and Astrophysics and 54 papers in Genetics. Recurrent topics in Jack W. Szostak's work include RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms (217 papers), Origins and Evolution of Life (128 papers) and DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry (108 papers). Jack W. Szostak is often cited by papers focused on RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms (217 papers), Origins and Evolution of Life (128 papers) and DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry (108 papers). Jack W. Szostak collaborates with scholars based in United States, China and Japan. Jack W. Szostak's co-authors include Andrew D. Ellington, Terry L. Orr‐Weaver, Rodney Rothstein, Elizabeth H. Blackburn, David P. Bartel, David Sloan Wilson, Andrew W. Murray, David Huizenga, Richard W. Roberts and Franklin W. Stahl and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Cell.

In The Last Decade

Jack W. Szostak

361 papers receiving 43.9k citations

Hit Papers

In vitro selection of RNA... 1980 2026 1995 2010 1990 1983 1981 2001 1995 2.5k 5.0k 7.5k
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. In vitro selection of RNA molecules that bind specific ligands
    1990 7.9k citations Andrew D. Ellington, Jack W. Szostak profile →
  2. The double-strand-break repair model for recombination
    1983 2.1k citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  3. Yeast transformation: a model system for the study of recombination.
    1981 1.3k citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  4. Synthesizing life
    2001 1.2k citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  5. A DNA Aptamer That Binds Adenosine and ATP
    1995 1.1k citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  6. In Vitro Selection of Functional Nucleic Acids
    1999 957 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  7. RNA-peptide fusions for the in vitro selection of peptides and proteins
    1997 816 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  8. A mutant with a defect in telomere elongation leads to senescence in yeast
    1989 758 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  9. Telomeres and telomerase: the path from maize, Tetrahymena and yeast to human cancer and aging
    2006 710 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  10. Selection in vitro of single-stranded DNA molecules that fold into specific ligand-binding structures
    1992 675 citations Andrew D. Ellington, Jack W. Szostak profile →
  11. Experimental Models of Primitive Cellular Compartments: Encapsulation, Growth, and Division
    2003 634 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Science profile →
  12. THE MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF CENTROMERES AND TELOMERES
    1984 570 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  13. Template-directed synthesis of a genetic polymer in a model protocell
    2008 531 citations Sheref S. Mansy, Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  14. An RNA motif that binds ATP
    1993 480 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  15. Double-strand breaks at an initiation site for meiotic gene conversion
    1989 475 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  16. Cloning yeast telomeres on linear plasmid vectors
    1982 465 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  17. Extensive 3′-overhanging, single-stranded DNA associated with the meiosis-specific double-strand breaks at the ARG4 recombination initiation site
    1991 463 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  18. [14] Genetic applications of yeast transformation with linear and gapped plasmids
    1983 446 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  19. DNA sequences of telomeres maintained in yeast
    1984 439 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  20. Functional proteins from a random-sequence library
    2001 400 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  21. Coupled Growth and Division of Model Protocell Membranes
    2009 376 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society profile →
  22. Yeast recombination: the association between double-strand gap repair and crossing-over.
    1983 374 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →
  23. Unequal crossing over in the ribosomal DNA of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
    1980 363 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  24. A DNA metalloenzyme with DNA ligase activity
    1995 352 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  25. HIV-1 rev regulation involves recognition of non-Watson-Crick base pairs in viral RNA
    1991 341 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  26. Pedigree analysis of plasmid segregation in yeast
    1983 337 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  27. Construction of artificial chromosomes in yeast
    1983 337 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  28. The Emergence of Competition Between Model Protocells
    2004 316 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Science profile →
  29. The guanosine binding site of the Tetrahymena ribozyme
    1989 314 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. profile →
  30. Structurally Complex and Highly Active RNA Ligases Derived from Random RNA Sequences
    1995 294 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Science profile →
  31. Structural conventions for group I introns
    1987 261 citations Jack W. Szostak et al. Nucleic Acids Research profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Jack W. Szostak United States 99 39.9k 7.3k 5.3k 4.8k 3.7k 364 45.2k
Walter Gilbert United States 57 27.0k 0.7× 1.3k 0.2× 588 0.1× 7.6k 1.6× 4.0k 1.1× 120 34.7k
David W. Deamer United States 76 11.0k 0.3× 5.7k 0.8× 6.1k 1.2× 738 0.2× 893 0.2× 237 20.2k
Andrew D. Ellington United States 90 31.0k 0.8× 793 0.1× 10.8k 2.0× 2.5k 0.5× 718 0.2× 507 37.0k
Alexander Rich United States 110 36.0k 0.9× 431 0.1× 1.4k 0.3× 2.9k 0.6× 1.6k 0.4× 450 43.6k
Manfred Eigen Germany 57 8.6k 0.2× 3.5k 0.5× 1.1k 0.2× 4.0k 0.8× 972 0.3× 172 17.8k
Steven A. Benner United States 62 11.9k 0.3× 2.9k 0.4× 923 0.2× 1.5k 0.3× 605 0.2× 354 16.3k
Leslie E. Orgel United States 78 12.3k 0.3× 8.5k 1.2× 509 0.1× 2.4k 0.5× 1.4k 0.4× 323 22.8k
Thomas R. Cech United States 105 35.3k 0.9× 1.3k 0.2× 508 0.1× 3.3k 0.7× 3.4k 0.9× 354 40.1k
Petra Schwille Germany 85 20.9k 0.5× 290 0.0× 5.2k 1.0× 1.5k 0.3× 533 0.1× 391 28.7k
Daniel E. Koshland United States 93 22.3k 0.6× 253 0.0× 2.1k 0.4× 4.6k 1.0× 1.3k 0.4× 454 32.3k

Countries citing papers authored by Jack W. Szostak

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Jack W. Szostak's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Jack W. Szostak with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Jack W. Szostak more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Jack W. Szostak

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Jack W. Szostak. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Jack W. Szostak. The network helps show where Jack W. Szostak may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Jack W. Szostak

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Jack W. Szostak. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Jack W. Szostak based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Jack W. Szostak. Jack W. Szostak is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Jia, Xiwen, et al.. (2025). Nonenzymatic RNA copying with a potentially primordial genetic alphabet. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 122(21). e2505720122–e2505720122.
2.
Duzdevich, Daniel, et al.. (2024). Overcoming nucleotide bias in the nonenzymatic copying of RNA templates. Nucleic Acids Research. 52(22). 13515–13529. 4 indexed citations
3.
Toparlak, Ö. Duhan, Megha Karki, Yanfeng Xing, et al.. (2023). Cyclophospholipids Enable a Protocellular Life Cycle. ACS Nano. 17(23). 23772–23783. 8 indexed citations
4.
Ashwood, Brennan, Yumin Lee, Joseph R. Sachleben, et al.. (2023). Thermodynamics and kinetics of DNA and RNA dinucleotide hybridization to gaps and overhangs. Biophysical Journal. 122(16). 3323–3339. 10 indexed citations
5.
Zhang, Stephanie J., Daniel Duzdevich, Dian Ding, & Jack W. Szostak. (2022). Freeze-thaw cycles enable a prebiotically plausible and continuous pathway from nucleotide activation to nonenzymatic RNA copying. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119(17). e2116429119–e2116429119. 35 indexed citations
6.
DasGupta, Saurja, et al.. (2022). Nonenzymatic assembly of active chimeric ribozymes from aminoacylated RNA oligonucleotides. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119(7). 15 indexed citations
7.
Szostak, Jack W., et al.. (2022). Hybridization kinetics of out-of-equilibrium mixtures of short RNA oligonucleotides. Nucleic Acids Research. 50(17). 9647–9662. 16 indexed citations
8.
Ding, Dian, et al.. (2021). Kinetic explanations for the sequence biases observed in the nonenzymatic copying of RNA templates. Nucleic Acids Research. 50(1). 35–45. 22 indexed citations
9.
Duzdevich, Daniel, Christopher E. Carr, Dian Ding, et al.. (2021). Competition between bridged dinucleotides and activated mononucleotides determines the error frequency of nonenzymatic RNA primer extension. Nucleic Acids Research. 49(7). 3681–3691. 19 indexed citations
10.
Jin, Lin, et al.. (2021). In search of the RNA world on Mars. Geobiology. 19(3). 307–321. 9 indexed citations
11.
Walton, Travis, Saurja DasGupta, Daniel Duzdevich, Seung Soo Oh, & Jack W. Szostak. (2020). In vitro selection of ribozyme ligases that use prebiotically plausible 2-aminoimidazole–activated substrates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(11). 5741–5748. 23 indexed citations
12.
Lelyveld, Victor S., Wen Zhang, & Jack W. Szostak. (2020). Synthesis of phosphoramidate-linked DNA by a modified DNA polymerase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117(13). 7276–7283. 9 indexed citations
13.
Duzdevich, Daniel, Christopher E. Carr, & Jack W. Szostak. (2020). Deep sequencing of non-enzymatic RNA primer extension. Nucleic Acids Research. 48(12). e70–e70. 22 indexed citations
14.
Wang, Anna & Jack W. Szostak. (2018). Self-assembly of model protocell membranes. Bulletin of the American Physical Society. 2018. 1 indexed citations
15.
O’Flaherty, Derek K., et al.. (2018). Inosine, but none of the 8-oxo-purines, is a plausible component of a primordial version of RNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(52). 13318–13323. 41 indexed citations
16.
Adamala, Katarzyna P. & Jack W. Szostak. (2013). Nonenzymatic Template-Directed RNA Synthesis Inside Model Protocells. Science. 342(6162). 1098–1100. 251 indexed citations
17.
Szostak, Jack W., et al.. (2009). Single-Molecule Imaging of an in Vitro -Evolved RNA Aptamer Reveals Homogeneous Ligand Binding Kinetics. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 131(29). 9866–9867. 35 indexed citations
18.
Salehi‐Ashtiani, Kourosh, Andrej Lupták, Alexander Litovchick, & Jack W. Szostak. (2006). A Genomewide Search for Ribozymes Reveals an HDV-Like Sequence in the Human CPEB3 Gene. Science. 313(5794). 1788–1792. 205 indexed citations
19.
Szostak, Jack W., et al.. (2005). Semipermeable lipid bilayers exhibit diastereoselectivity favoring ribose. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102(17). 6004–6008. 105 indexed citations
20.
Szostak, Jack W. & Andrew D. Ellington. (1993). 20 In Vitro Selection of Functional RNA Sequences. Cold Spring Harbor Monograph Archive. 24. 511–533. 35 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

You can learn more about the impact of Jack W. Szostak by visiting their Pantheon page.

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