Nicola Smart

4.4k total citations · 2 hit papers
66 papers, 3.0k citations indexed

About

Nicola Smart is a scholar working on Molecular Biology, Surgery and Cell Biology. According to data from OpenAlex, Nicola Smart has authored 66 papers receiving a total of 3.0k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 47 papers in Molecular Biology, 25 papers in Surgery and 19 papers in Cell Biology. Recurrent topics in Nicola Smart's work include Congenital heart defects research (36 papers), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (20 papers) and Cellular Mechanics and Interactions (14 papers). Nicola Smart is often cited by papers focused on Congenital heart defects research (36 papers), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (20 papers) and Cellular Mechanics and Interactions (14 papers). Nicola Smart collaborates with scholars based in United Kingdom, United States and China. Nicola Smart's co-authors include Paul R. Riley, Karina N. Dubé, Sveva Bollini, Catherine A. Risebro, Robert J. Schwartz, Kelvin A. Moses, Kenneth R. Chien, Mark F. Lythgoe, Joaquim Miguel Vieira and Johannes Riegler and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Circulation and Journal of Clinical Investigation.

In The Last Decade

Nicola Smart

64 papers receiving 3.0k 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.

Thymosin β4 induces adult epicardial progenitor mobilization and neovascularization

2006 502 citations Nicola Smart, Catherine A. Risebro et al. profile →
De novo cardiomyocytes from within the activated adult heart after injury

2011 488 citations Nicola Smart, Sveva Bollini et al. profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name	h						Papers	Cites
Nicola Smart United Kingdom	30	2.0k	1.2k	646	471	305	66	3.0k
Onur Kanisicak United States	19	2.1k 1.0×	1.1k 0.9×	1.5k 2.4×	241 0.5×	237 0.8×	35	3.4k
Alexander von Gise United States	20	3.5k 1.7×	1.3k 1.1×	1.0k 1.6×	734 1.6×	518 1.7×	24	4.4k
Jop H. van Berlo United States	25	3.0k 1.5×	1.0k 0.9×	1.6k 2.5×	206 0.4×	165 0.5×	55	4.4k
Hadi Khalil United States	13	1.6k 0.8×	769 0.7×	1.4k 2.1×	204 0.4×	187 0.6×	20	2.7k
Peter Pytel United States	32	1.8k 0.9×	241 0.2×	383 0.6×	375 0.8×	308 1.0×	126	3.7k
Reinhold J. Medina United Kingdom	29	2.1k 1.0×	476 0.4×	200 0.3×	211 0.4×	179 0.6×	61	3.9k
Feilim Mac Gabhann United States	34	2.2k 1.1×	386 0.3×	138 0.2×	364 0.8×	167 0.5×	80	3.4k
Annette Meeson United Kingdom	22	1.5k 0.7×	560 0.5×	156 0.2×	219 0.5×	102 0.3×	49	2.2k
Sandra Ryeom United States	32	2.3k 1.1×	505 0.4×	228 0.4×	285 0.6×	764 2.5×	71	4.4k

Countries citing papers authored by Nicola Smart

Since Specialization

Citations

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

Fields of papers citing papers by Nicola Smart

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Nicola Smart. 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 Nicola Smart. The network helps show where Nicola Smart may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Nicola Smart

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

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

Smart, Nicola, et al.. (2025). Bridging the Translational Gap: Rethinking Smooth Muscle Cell Plasticity in Atherosclerosis Through Human-Relevant In Vitro Models. Cells. 14(23). 1913–1913.

Han, Maoying, Lei Liu, Zhixin Kang, et al.. (2025). Spatiotemporal Proliferative Heterogeneity of Intraorgan Endothelial Cells. Circulation Research. 137(7). 934–949.

Balbi, Carolina & Nicola Smart. (2023). Epicardioids: a novel tool for cardiac regeneration research?. Cardiovascular Research. 119(17). e164–e166. 1 indexed citations

Li, Yi, Zixin Liu, Feng Liang, et al.. (2023). Dynamics of Endothelial Cell Generation and Turnover in Arteries During Homeostasis and Diseases. Circulation. 149(2). 135–154. 17 indexed citations

McCracken, Ian R, Ross Dobie, Abdelaziz Beqqali, et al.. (2022). Mapping the developing human cardiac endothelium at single-cell resolution identifies MECOM as a regulator of arteriovenous gene expression. Cardiovascular Research. 118(14). 2960–2972. 35 indexed citations

Redpath, Andia N., Alisha Jones, Jyoti Patel, et al.. (2021). Thymosin β4 protects against aortic aneurysm via endocytic regulation of growth factor signaling. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 131(10). 21 indexed citations

Redpath, Andia N., et al.. (2021). Analysis of epicardial genes in embryonic mouse hearts with flow cytometry. STAR Protocols. 2(1). 100359–100359. 2 indexed citations

Redpath, Andia N., et al.. (2020). Spatiotemporal Analysis Reveals Overlap of Key Proepicardial Markers in the Developing Murine Heart. Stem Cell Reports. 14(5). 770–787. 50 indexed citations

Zhao, Huan, Xueying Tian, Lingjuan He, et al.. (2018). Apj+ Vessels Drive Tumor Growth and Represent a Tractable Therapeutic Target. Cell Reports. 25(5). 1241–1254.e5. 27 indexed citations

10.

Bollini, Sveva, Paul R. Riley, & Nicola Smart. (2015). Thymosin β4: multiple functions in protection, repair and regeneration of the mammalian heart. Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 15(sup1). 163–174. 29 indexed citations

11.

Bollini, Sveva, Joaquim Miguel Vieira, Sara Howard, et al.. (2014). Re-Activated Adult Epicardial Progenitor Cells Are a Heterogeneous Population Molecularly Distinct from Their Embryonic Counterparts. Stem Cells and Development. 23(15). 1719–1730. 68 indexed citations

12.

Smart, Nicola, Sveva Bollini, Bin Zhou, et al.. (2012). Myocardial regeneration: expanding the repertoire of thymosin beta 4 in the ischemic heart. UCL Discovery (University College London). 2 indexed citations

13.

Smart, Nicola, Karina N. Dubé, & Paul R. Riley. (2012). Epicardial progenitor cells in cardiac regeneration and neovascularisation. Vascular Pharmacology. 58(3). 164–173. 44 indexed citations

14.

Bollini, Sveva, King Kenneth Cheung, Johannes Riegler, et al.. (2011). Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells Are Cardioprotective Following Acute Myocardial Infarction. Stem Cells and Development. 20(11). 1985–1994. 85 indexed citations

15.

Smart, Nicola, et al.. (2011). Vascularizing the heart. Cardiovascular Research. 91(2). 260–268. 49 indexed citations

16.

Smart, Nicola, Catherine A. Risebro, Jane Clark, et al.. (2010). Thymosin beta 4 facilitates epicardial neovascularization of the injured adult heart. HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe). 2 indexed citations

17.

Smart, Nicola, Catherine A. Risebro, James J. Clark, et al.. (2010). Thymosins in Health and Disease: 2nd International Symposium. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 62 indexed citations

18.

Smart, Nicola, Karina N. Dubé, & Paul R. Riley. (2010). Identification of Thymosin β4 as an effector of Hand1-mediated vascular development. Nature Communications. 1(1). 46–46. 33 indexed citations

19.

Risebro, Catherine A., Nicola Smart, Carla O. Rosario, et al.. (2007). Nucleolar release of Hand1 acts as a molecular switch to determine cell fate. Nature Cell Biology. 9(10). 1131–1141. 58 indexed citations

20.

Smart, Nicola, Peter Scambler, & Paul R. Riley. (2005). A rapid and sensitive assay for quantification of siRNA efficiency and specificity. Biological Procedures Online. 7(1). 1–7. 20 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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