W. Zac Stephens

6.1k total citations · 4 hit papers
40 papers, 4.2k citations indexed

About

W. Zac Stephens is a scholar working on Molecular Biology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases. According to data from OpenAlex, W. Zac Stephens has authored 40 papers receiving a total of 4.2k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 30 papers in Molecular Biology, 14 papers in Immunology and 7 papers in Infectious Diseases. Recurrent topics in W. Zac Stephens's work include Gut microbiota and health (22 papers), Immune Cell Function and Interaction (6 papers) and Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research (6 papers). W. Zac Stephens is often cited by papers focused on Gut microbiota and health (22 papers), Immune Cell Function and Interaction (6 papers) and Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research (6 papers). W. Zac Stephens collaborates with scholars based in United States, Canada and Netherlands. W. Zac Stephens's co-authors include Karen Guillemin, John F. Rawls, Adam R. Burns, Brendan J. M. Bohannan, Sandi Wong, Keaton Stagaman, Erika Mittge, Colleen M. Cavanaugh, Guus Roeselers and David M. Parichy and has published in prestigious journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Journal of Biological Chemistry.

In The Last Decade

W. Zac Stephens

36 papers receiving 4.1k 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.

Evidence for a core gut microbiota in the zebrafish

2011 890 citations Guus Roeselers, Erika Mittge et al. The ISME Journal profile →
Contribution of neutral processes to the assembly of gut microbial communities in the zebrafish over host development

2015 644 citations Adam R. Burns, W. Zac Stephens et al. The ISME Journal profile →
The composition of the zebrafish intestinal microbial community varies across development

2015 471 citations W. Zac Stephens, Adam R. Burns et al. The ISME Journal profile →
Expansion of Bacteriophages Is Linked to Aggravated Intestinal Inflammation and Colitis

2019 407 citations Lasha Gogokhia, Rickesha Bell et al. Cell Host & Microbe profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

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

Name	h						Papers	Cites
W. Zac Stephens United States	22	2.4k	1.3k	909	502	379	40	4.2k
Jian Ye China	15	3.3k 1.4×	833 0.6×	807 0.9×	451 0.9×	103 0.3×	37	6.6k
Keaton Stagaman United States	15	1.6k 0.7×	523 0.4×	646 0.7×	261 0.5×	176 0.5×	24	2.7k
Juan L. Barja Spain	47	2.1k 0.9×	3.8k 2.9×	1.1k 1.2×	269 0.5×	923 2.4×	198	6.5k
Karen Guillemin United States	49	4.4k 1.8×	3.1k 2.4×	1.3k 1.4×	482 1.0×	709 1.9×	103	8.9k
Na Li China	30	1.7k 0.7×	432 0.3×	367 0.4×	450 0.9×	195 0.5×	188	3.7k
Shicui Zhang China	41	2.0k 0.8×	2.6k 2.0×	561 0.6×	132 0.3×	984 2.6×	319	6.4k
Triinu Kõressaar Estonia	9	4.3k 1.8×	622 0.5×	1.2k 1.3×	421 0.8×	287 0.8×	9	9.4k
Joerg Graf United States	34	2.3k 1.0×	986 0.7×	875 1.0×	239 0.5×	69 0.2×	97	4.9k
Philip Ewels Sweden	12	3.3k 1.4×	524 0.4×	704 0.8×	364 0.7×	69 0.2×	20	5.9k
Aleš Tichopád Czechia	19	3.9k 1.6×	376 0.3×	573 0.6×	204 0.4×	145 0.4×	57	6.1k

Countries citing papers authored by W. Zac Stephens

Since Specialization

Citations

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

Fields of papers citing papers by W. Zac Stephens

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by W. Zac Stephens. 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 W. Zac Stephens. The network helps show where W. Zac Stephens may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of W. Zac Stephens

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

All Works

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20 of 20 papers shown

Byrd, Doratha A., Maria F. Gomez, Tengda Lin, et al.. (2025). The gut microbiome is associated with disease‐free survival in stage I–III colorectal cancer patients. International Journal of Cancer. 157(1). 64–73. 2 indexed citations

Pershing, Nicole L., et al.. (2025). The impact of tokenizer selection in genomic language models. Bioinformatics. 41(9).

Klag, Kendra A., Daniela Ott, Trevor S. Tippetts, et al.. (2025). Dietary fat disrupts a commensal-host lipid network that promotes metabolic health. Cell Metabolism. 38(1). 157–173.e9.

Yi, Jing, et al.. (2024). Autoimmune CD4+ T cells fine-tune TCF1 expression to maintain function and survive persistent antigen exposure during diabetes. Immunity. 57(11). 2583–2596.e6. 7 indexed citations

Araujo, Claudia V. de, Frederik Denorme, W. Zac Stephens, et al.. (2023). Neonatal NET-Inhibitory Factor improves survival in the cecal ligation and puncture model of polymicrobial sepsis by inhibiting neutrophil extracellular traps. Frontiers in Immunology. 13. 1046574–1046574. 7 indexed citations

Weinstein, Sara B., W. Zac Stephens, Robert Greenhalgh, June L. Round, & M. Denise Dearing. (2022). Wild herbivorous mammals (genus Neotoma) host a diverse but transient assemblage of fungi. Symbiosis. 87(1). 45–58. 5 indexed citations

Stephens, W. Zac, Jason L. Kubinak, Arevik Ghazaryan, et al.. (2021). Epithelial-myeloid exchange of MHC class II constrains immunity and microbiota composition. Cell Reports. 37(5). 109916–109916. 19 indexed citations

Petersen, Charisse, Rickesha Bell, Kendra A. Klag, et al.. (2019). T cell–mediated regulation of the microbiota protects against obesity. Science. 365(6451). 297 indexed citations

Ekiz, H. Atakan, Thomas B. Huffaker, Allie H. Grossmann, et al.. (2019). MicroRNA-155 coordinates the immunological landscape within murine melanoma and correlates with immunity in human cancers. JCI Insight. 4(6). 35 indexed citations

10.

Brown, D. Garrett, Raymond Soto, Laura L. Dickey, et al.. (2019). The microbiota protects from viral-induced neurologic damage through microglia-intrinsic TLR signaling. eLife. 8. 50 indexed citations

11.

Gogokhia, Lasha, Rickesha Bell, D. Garrett Brown, et al.. (2019). Expansion of Bacteriophages Is Linked to Aggravated Intestinal Inflammation and Colitis. Cell Host & Microbe. 25(2). 285–299.e8. 407 indexed citations breakdown →

12.

Chiaro, Tyson R., Ray Soto, W. Zac Stephens, et al.. (2017). A member of the gut mycobiota modulates host purine metabolism exacerbating colitis in mice. Science Translational Medicine. 9(380). 171 indexed citations

13.

Wallace, Jared, Ruozhen Hu, Timothy L. Mosbruger, et al.. (2016). Genome-Wide CRISPR-Cas9 Screen Identifies MicroRNAs That Regulate Myeloid Leukemia Cell Growth. PLoS ONE. 11(4). e0153689–e0153689. 44 indexed citations

14.

Kubinak, Jason L., Charisse Petersen, W. Zac Stephens, et al.. (2015). MyD88 Signaling in T Cells Directs IgA-Mediated Control of the Microbiota to Promote Health. Cell Host & Microbe. 17(2). 153–163. 255 indexed citations

15.

Kubinak, Jason L., W. Zac Stephens, Ray Soto, et al.. (2015). MHC variation sculpts individualized microbial communities that control susceptibility to enteric infection. Nature Communications. 6(1). 8642–8642. 126 indexed citations

16.

Wong, Sandi, W. Zac Stephens, Adam R. Burns, et al.. (2015). Ontogenetic Differences in Dietary Fat Influence Microbiota Assembly in the Zebrafish Gut. mBio. 6(5). e00687–15. 85 indexed citations

17.

Perlin, Julie R., Mark E. Lush, W. Zac Stephens, Tatjana Piotrowski, & William S. Talbot. (2011). Neuronal Neuregulin 1 type III directs Schwann cell migration. Development. 138(21). 4639–4648. 70 indexed citations

18.

Roeselers, Guus, Erika Mittge, W. Zac Stephens, et al.. (2011). Evidence for a core gut microbiota in the zebrafish. The ISME Journal. 5(10). 1595–1608. 890 indexed citations breakdown →

19.

Stephens, W. Zac, et al.. (2010). Loss of adenomatous polyposis coli (apc) results in an expanded ciliary marginal zone in the zebrafish eye. Developmental Dynamics. 239(7). 2066–2077. 19 indexed citations

20.

Kopinke, Daniel, Joshua Sasine, Jennifer A. Swift, W. Zac Stephens, & Tatjana Piotrowski. (2006). Retinoic acid is required for endodermal pouch morphogenesis and not for pharyngeal endoderm specification. Developmental Dynamics. 235(10). 2695–2709. 66 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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