Michael J. Stephenson

1.1k total citations · 2 hit papers
19 papers, 761 citations indexed

About

Michael J. Stephenson is a scholar working on Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Pharmacology. According to data from OpenAlex, Michael J. Stephenson has authored 19 papers receiving a total of 761 indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 19 papers in Molecular Biology, 4 papers in Biotechnology and 3 papers in Pharmacology. Recurrent topics in Michael J. Stephenson's work include Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis (14 papers), Natural product bioactivities and synthesis (7 papers) and Phytochemical compounds biological activities (5 papers). Michael J. Stephenson is often cited by papers focused on Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis (14 papers), Natural product bioactivities and synthesis (7 papers) and Phytochemical compounds biological activities (5 papers). Michael J. Stephenson collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and China. Michael J. Stephenson's co-authors include Anne Osbourn, James Reed, Bastiaan Brouwer, Aymeric Leveau, Elizabeth S. Sattely, Ricardo De La Peña, Charlotte Owen, Maria A. O’Connell, Paul J. Brett and Alain Goossens and has published in prestigious journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In The Last Decade

Michael J. Stephenson

17 papers receiving 758 citations

Hit Papers

align trajectories

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.

Elucidation of the pathway for biosynthesis of saponin adjuvants from the soapbark tree

2023 103 citations James Reed, Anastasia Orme et al. Science profile →
Complex scaffold remodeling in plant triterpene biosynthesis

2023 85 citations Ricardo De La Peña, Chun‐Ting Liu et al. Science profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Michael J. Stephenson United Kingdom	12	660	163	141	87	62	19	761
Thomas Louveau United Kingdom	9	815 1.2×	281 1.7×	129 0.9×	64 0.7×	83 1.3×	11	1.0k
Ruibing Chen China	16	799 1.2×	274 1.7×	143 1.0×	133 1.5×	77 1.2×	25	970
Eun-Kyong Lee United Kingdom	8	425 0.6×	158 1.0×	131 0.9×	104 1.2×	38 0.6×	9	580
Soo‐Jin Choo South Korea	15	259 0.4×	123 0.8×	144 1.0×	58 0.7×	45 0.7×	25	559
Wajid Waheed Bhat India	19	918 1.4×	298 1.8×	167 1.2×	39 0.4×	58 0.9×	37	1.2k
Nikolay Vasilev Germany	14	376 0.6×	225 1.4×	66 0.5×	123 1.4×	52 0.8×	22	537
Mareshige Kojoma Japan	14	389 0.6×	247 1.5×	178 1.3×	45 0.5×	121 2.0×	28	565
Grégory Guirimand France	17	848 1.3×	243 1.5×	191 1.4×	94 1.1×	168 2.7×	28	995
Nutan Malpathak India	14	373 0.6×	316 1.9×	63 0.4×	82 0.9×	33 0.5×	33	550

Countries citing papers authored by Michael J. Stephenson

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Michael J. Stephenson'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 Michael J. Stephenson with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Michael J. Stephenson more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Michael J. Stephenson

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Michael J. Stephenson. 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 Michael J. Stephenson. The network helps show where Michael J. Stephenson may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Michael J. Stephenson

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Michael J. Stephenson. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Michael J. Stephenson 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 Michael J. Stephenson. Michael J. Stephenson is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

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19 of 19 papers shown

1.

Stephenson, Michael J. & Peter E. Brodelius. (2025). Prediction of the reaction mechanisms of sesquiterpene coumarin synthases supports a direct evolutionary link with triterpene biosynthesis. Phytochemistry Reviews. 24(6). 4853–4916. 1 indexed citations

2.

Diao, Hongjuan, et al.. (2025). Atomic basis for functional evolution of plant lanosterol synthase. New Phytologist. 249(1). 373–388.

3.

Stephenson, Michael J., Charlotte Owen, James Reed, & Anne Osbourn. (2025). Large-scale mining of plant genomes unlocks the diversity of oxidosqualene cyclases. Nature Chemical Biology. 22(2). 249–259.

4.

Stephenson, Michael J., Shingo Kikuchi, Laetitia B. B. Martin, et al.. (2024). Plants Utilize a Protection/Deprotection Strategy in Limonoid Biosynthesis: A “Missing Link” Carboxylesterase Boosts Yields and Provides Insights into Furan Formation. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 146(43). 29305–29310. 4 indexed citations

5.

Peña, Ricardo De La, Chun‐Ting Liu, Michael J. Stephenson, et al.. (2023). Complex scaffold remodeling in plant triterpene biosynthesis. Science. 379(6630). 361–368. 85 indexed citations breakdown →

6.

Reed, James, Anastasia Orme, Amr El‐Demerdash, et al.. (2023). Elucidation of the pathway for biosynthesis of saponin adjuvants from the soapbark tree. Science. 379(6638). 1252–1264. 103 indexed citations breakdown →

7.

Polturak, Guy, Martin Dippe, Michael J. Stephenson, et al.. (2022). Pathogen-induced biosynthetic pathways encode defense-related molecules in bread wheat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119(16). e2123299119–e2123299119. 43 indexed citations

8.

Stephenson, Michael J. & Anne Osbourn. (2020). Making drugs out of sunlight and ‘thin air’: an emerging synergy of synthetic biology and natural product chemistry. The Biochemist. 42(4). 34–39. 2 indexed citations

9.

Liu, Zhenhua, Hernando G. Suárez Duran, Michael J. Stephenson, et al.. (2019). Drivers of metabolic diversification: how dynamic genomic neighbourhoods generate new biosynthetic pathways in the Brassicaceae. New Phytologist. 227(4). 1109–1123. 58 indexed citations

10.

Stephenson, Michael J., Robert A. Field, & Anne Osbourn. (2019). The protosteryl and dammarenyl cation dichotomy in polycyclic triterpene biosynthesis revisited: has this ‘rule’ finally been broken?. Natural Product Reports. 36(8). 1044–1052. 25 indexed citations

11.

Peña, Ricardo De La, Michael J. Stephenson, Ramesha Thimmappa, et al.. (2019). Identification of key enzymes responsible for protolimonoid biosynthesis in plants: Opening the door to azadirachtin production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(34). 17096–17104. 81 indexed citations

12.

Orme, Anastasia, Thomas Louveau, Michael J. Stephenson, et al.. (2019). A noncanonical vacuolar sugar transferase required for biosynthesis of antimicrobial defense compounds in oat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(52). 27105–27114. 40 indexed citations

13.

Xue, Zheyong, Ancheng C. Huang, Yuan Zhou, et al.. (2018). Identification of key amino acid residues determining product specificity of 2,3‐oxidosqualene cyclase in Oryza species. New Phytologist. 218(3). 1076–1088. 47 indexed citations

14.

Louveau, Thomas, Anastasia Orme, Michael J. Stephenson, et al.. (2018). Analysis of Two New Arabinosyltransferases Belonging to the Carbohydrate-Active Enzyme (CAZY) Glycosyl Transferase Family1 Provides Insights into Disease Resistance and Sugar Donor Specificity. The Plant Cell. 30(12). 3038–3057. 56 indexed citations

15.

Stephenson, Michael J., James Reed, Bastiaan Brouwer, & Anne Osbourn. (2018). Transient Expression in <em>Nicotiana Benthamiana</em> Leaves for Triterpene Production at a Preparative Scale. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 24 indexed citations

16.

Leveau, Aymeric, James Reed, Xue Qiao, et al.. (2018). Towards take‐all control: a C‐21β oxidase required for acylation of triterpene defence compounds in oat. New Phytologist. 221(3). 1544–1555. 22 indexed citations

17.

Stephenson, Michael J., James Reed, Bastiaan Brouwer, & Anne Osbourn. (2018). Transient Expression in <em>Nicotiana Benthamiana</em> Leaves for Triterpene Production at a Preparative Scale. Journal of Visualized Experiments. 3 indexed citations

18.

Reed, James, Michael J. Stephenson, Karel Miettinen, et al.. (2017). A translational synthetic biology platform for rapid access to gram-scale quantities of novel drug-like molecules. Metabolic Engineering. 42. 185–193. 157 indexed citations

19.

Stephenson, Michael J., Lesley A. Howell, Maria A. O’Connell, et al.. (2015). Solid-Phase Synthesis of Duocarmycin Analogues and the Effect of C-Terminal Substitution on Biological Activity. The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 80(19). 9454–9467. 10 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.

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