A paper published by Sir Philip Cohen and members of his research team in 2000 has been named as Europe's most influential publication over the period 1996-2007 in an article published in the September 2009 issue of Lab Times using information in Thomson Scientific's Web of Science. The influence of the paper was judged by the number of times it had been quoted subsequently by other scientists in their own publications (termed citations). The paper, entitled 'Specificity and mechanism of action of some commonly used protein kinase inhibitors' was published in volume 351, pages 95-105 of the Biochemical Journal and had garnered 2,199 citations by the end of May 2009, 340 more than its nearest rival.
The article also confirms Sir Philip as the UK's most cited cell biologist, his 150 publications over the period 1996-2007 being quoted 20,171 times by other scientists. Professor Dario Alessi, another research scientist in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee, Scotland, whose papers were quoted 15, 599 times, was the UK's 3rd most cited cell biologist. Splitting Philip and Dario was Professor Alan Hall, the Director of the MRC Molecular and Cellular Biology Unit at University College London until 2007, whose 19, 961 citations placed him in 2nd in the UK. Scientists working in MRC Units therefore occupied all the top three places in the UK rankings.
Commenting on his most quoted paper Sir Philip said:- 'protein kinases are a class of enzyme that controls many of the functions of the human body but they can become deregulated in many diseases. For this reason, protein kinases have become the pharmaceutical industry's most important class of drug target, especially in the field of cancer. To help accelerate the development of these novel drugs we introduced a technology called 'Protein Kinase Profiling' in the late 1990's. I thought that the information we were obtaining in this way would be useful to other cell biologists but was taken aback by the deluge of e.mails that followed the publication of our paper on this topic, which by far exceeded the reaction to any other paper that I have published before or since. The Biochemical Journal told me a few years ago that the article had been downloaded from their website 7,600 times in 2004 alone. 'Protein Kinase Profiling' was first marketed by the European division of Upstate Incorporated, a biotechnology company set up in Dundee in 1999. It became a huge commercial success leading to its acquisition for over US$200 million by Serologicals in 2004.
The article published in the September issue of Lab Times contains other intriguing information. It reveals that, with an average of 30.1 citations per paper, Scotland is the 2nd most influential country in the world in the field of cell biology, just behind Switzerland. England is third in the list, with Israel 4th and the Netherlands 5th. Surprisingly, the USA with 18.7 citations per paper only comes 13th in the world list.
The article also confirms Sir Philip as the UK's most cited cell biologist, his 150 publications over the period 1996-2007 being quoted 20,171 times by other scientists. Professor Dario Alessi, another research scientist in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee, Scotland, whose papers were quoted 15, 599 times, was the UK's 3rd most cited cell biologist. Splitting Philip and Dario was Professor Alan Hall, the Director of the MRC Molecular and Cellular Biology Unit at University College London until 2007, whose 19, 961 citations placed him in 2nd in the UK. Scientists working in MRC Units therefore occupied all the top three places in the UK rankings.
Commenting on his most quoted paper Sir Philip said:- 'protein kinases are a class of enzyme that controls many of the functions of the human body but they can become deregulated in many diseases. For this reason, protein kinases have become the pharmaceutical industry's most important class of drug target, especially in the field of cancer. To help accelerate the development of these novel drugs we introduced a technology called 'Protein Kinase Profiling' in the late 1990's. I thought that the information we were obtaining in this way would be useful to other cell biologists but was taken aback by the deluge of e.mails that followed the publication of our paper on this topic, which by far exceeded the reaction to any other paper that I have published before or since. The Biochemical Journal told me a few years ago that the article had been downloaded from their website 7,600 times in 2004 alone. 'Protein Kinase Profiling' was first marketed by the European division of Upstate Incorporated, a biotechnology company set up in Dundee in 1999. It became a huge commercial success leading to its acquisition for over US$200 million by Serologicals in 2004.
The article published in the September issue of Lab Times contains other intriguing information. It reveals that, with an average of 30.1 citations per paper, Scotland is the 2nd most influential country in the world in the field of cell biology, just behind Switzerland. England is third in the list, with Israel 4th and the Netherlands 5th. Surprisingly, the USA with 18.7 citations per paper only comes 13th in the world list.