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An influential scientific journal’s list of top translational biotech researchers for 2019 includes Guangping Gao, PhD, the Penelope Booth Rockwell Professor in Biomedical Research, professor of microbiology & physiological systems, director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center and co-director of the Li Weibo Institute for Rare Diseases. Nature Biotechnology notes that its ranking of the top 20 biotech researchers is based on total patents (European and U.S.) granted for the year and also includes the researcher’s top-cited patent over the past five years, along with the researcher’s H-index, a measurement of impact for published work over time (higher means greater impact).
Dr. Gao was in the Top 20 list last year as well.
Gao is an internationally recognized gene therapy researcher who has played a key role in the discovery and characterization of new family of adeno-associated virus (AAV) serotypes, which was instrumental in reviving the gene therapy field, hugely impacting many untreatable human diseases. For nearly 30 years of his scientific research career, Gao has primarily focused on molecular genetics and viral vector gene therapy of rare genetic diseases, encompassing disease gene cloning, causative mutation identification, pathomechanism investigation, animal modeling, novel viral vector discovery and engineering for in vivo gene delivery, vector biology, preclinical and clinical gene therapy product development, viral vector manufacturing for preclinical and clinical gene therapy applications, as well as technology platforms development as novel approaches for human gene therapy.
Topping the list of the Top 20 this year is Jennifer Doudna, PhD, one of the 2020 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, who first entered the Nature ranking last year as the inventor on foundational CRISPR patents. Rapid approval by the USPTO of a collection of patents in 2019 has moved her to the top. The journal also highlights the continued dominance of Massachusetts institutions in influential research, with eight of the top 20 in the rankings at Bay State research labs.
