Highly Cited Researchers

Bond LSC Researchers Named Most Highly Cited for 2020

January 26, 2021 By Lauren Hines in Research Tags: Highly Cited Researchers, plant immune system, reactive oxygen species

Bing Yang and Ron Mittler — Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigators Bing Yang (left) and Ron Mittler (right) are pictured above. | photos by Erica Overfelt, Bond LSC.

By Lauren Hines | Bond LSC

Building onto previous knowledge is a pillar of the scientific process, and citations in research do just that.

This makes recognition of Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigators Ron Mittler and Bing Yang, as well as Mizzou biochemistry professor Shuqun Zhang in the Highly Cited Researchers list for 2020, an important acknowledgment.

“I’m glad to have this, and this is the second year [I have been on the list],” Yang said. “If you have your paper widely read by other researchers and actually cited, it’s relevant to the rest of the field, or to the community. We always talk about the impact of your research to the community and the impact of the research on science.”

Yang studies the resilience and susceptibility of disease in crops, specifically rice. The Bing Yang lab also strives to develop genome editing technology to discover and improve traits in rice, like disease resistance.

“It’s significant because we create some useful tools and develop technology, so then other people or the community can use it,” Yang said. “We also work on the bacteria and disease, which can help the small farmer, help the grower of the rice to fight the disease and make the rice more productive.”

On the other hand, Mittler’s research focuses more on how reactive oxygen species (ROS) helps regulate systemic signaling in plants. ROS are reactive molecules that perform chemical reactions easily. While these molecules destroy cells with these reactions, they can also send widespread messages and regulate many essential processes.

Understanding ROS – and building upon the knowledge of ROS – can help researchers genetically modify crops to withstand more environmental stresses in the future.

With some luck and most of 2021 ahead, Mittler, Yang, Zhang and others will continue their pursuit of discovery and expand the shared knowledge base of science for the future.

To learn more, read some of Bing Yang and Ron Mittler’s most cited work. The Highly Cited Researchers List is compiled by Clarivate’s Web of Science.

Bond Life Sciences Center Scientists Named to Thomson Reuters’ 2015 List of Highly Cited Researchers

January 26, 2016 By Bobby Remis in Events and speakers Tags: Bond Life Sciences Center, Highly Cited Researchers, Thomson Reuters, Yidong Liu

By Bobby Remis | MU Bond Life Sciences Center

You can imagine it’s hard to distinguish yourself from the crowd when it comes to scientific papers.

But, publishing quality work in a well-known journal adds value to the whole scientific world by assisting others and inspiring new science. Three Bond LSC researchers recently were recognized for doing just that.

Bond Life Sciences Center scientists Chris Pires, Shuqun Zhang and Yidong Liu are among five University of Missouri System researchers named in the 2015 Thomson Reuters’ Highly Cited Researchers list.

This list spotlights the top 1 percent of papers published from nearly 9 million scientists and scholars. The Highly Cited Researchers 2015 list represents the world’s most influential scientific minds from 21 scientific fields. The rankings are based on how often scientific papers published in the last decade get cited in newly published research, according to Essential Science Indicators (ESI), a component of the Web of Science.

16458632870_36bcd5480e_k-e1427818315742-370x533 Chris Pires, associate professor of Biological Sciences, studies the evolution of plants by looking at changes in their genetics over millions of years. Pires published work in 2015 looking at how plant defenses evolved in tandem with the defenses of caterpillars that feed on them.

Shuqun Zhang is a Distinguished Researcher from the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and a professor of Biochemistry. His research seeks to improve plants’ response to adverse environmental conditions. By identifying molecular targets that aid in protecting crops from disease, his research aims to help create healthier, more productive agricultural products. In particular, he focuses on a family of enzymes called mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) that are involved in plant cell-to-cell communication and plant interaction with its environment.

Yidong Liu is a senior research specialist from MU’s Department of Biochemistry that manages Shuqun Zhang’s lab. She also works on MAPKs and their role in plant defense responses such as pathogen-induced ethylene biosynthesis and phytoalexin induction.

The Bond Life Sciences Center is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Missouri exploring problems in human and animal health, the environment and agriculture since 2004. Learn more about our research by visiting bondlsc.missouri.edu.