Davor Solter named 2024 Citation Laureate
Davor Solter, MPI-IE Director Emeritus, has been named a Citation Laureate in Clarivate’s annual list of “Researchers of Nobel Class”
Davor Solter, Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, has been named one of this year's Citation Laureates by Clarivate Analytics for his discovery of genomic imprinting.
The selection of a Citation Laureate is based not only on research achievements, but also on the frequency of citations in prestigious journals. Each year, the Clarivate Group conducts an in-depth analysis of publication and citation data to identify potential candidates. Since 1970, out of more than 61 million indexed articles, only about 9,000 (0.01%) have been cited 2,000 or more times, and from this group, a select few are chosen each year. Citation Laureates are also considered potential Nobel Prize candidates. Since the award’s inception in 2002, the list's experts have correctly predicted 75 Citation Laureates who went on to win the Nobel Prize – making it a short list of researchers of Nobel class.
Davor Solter is honoured together with Azim Surani in the Physiology or Medicine category “for the discovery of genomic imprinting, advancing our understanding of epigenetics and mammalian development”.
Genomic imprinting, a phenomenon whereby certain genes are expressed differently depending on whether they are inherited from the mother or father, was a landmark discovery made by Davor Solter and Azim Surani in the 1980s. Their discovery – they made independently from each other – revolutionized our understanding of developmental biology by showing that the maternal and paternal genomes are not interchangeable, as previously thought. Their work highlighted the crucial role of epigenetic regulation, where gene expression is controlled by chemical marks rather than changes in the DNA sequence itself.
The discovery of genomic imprinting has had profound implications for human health and disease. Errors in imprinting are now known to cause several genetic disorders, such as Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes. It has also provided valuable insights into evolutionary biology, revealing the genetic strategies that control the development and survival of offspring. Solter and Surani's work continues to influence the fields of genetics and epigenetics, paving the way for new research and therapeutic approaches.
Throughout his career, Davor Solter has made significant contributions to many areas of mammalian developmental biology, including germ layer differentiation, the role of cell surface molecules in regulating early development, the biology and genetics of teratocarcinomas, the biology of embryonic stem cells and cloning.
Congratulations, Davor!
Biographie Davor Solter
Davor Solter was born in 1941 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. He received his M.D. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1971 from the University of Zagreb. Between 1973 and 1991, he served as a professor at The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia, USA, and became Wistar Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, USA in 1984. In 1991, Solter was appointed Max Planck Director at the MPI of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany, heading the Department of Developmental Biology until 2006. From 2008 to 2013, he held a professorship at the National University of Singapore as part of a partnership with Duke University and became a Research Director of the Institute of Medical Biology at A*STAR in Singapore. Since 2014, he has been a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. Davor Solter is the recipient of several international awards, including the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology (1998), the Rosenstiel Award (2007) for outstanding work in Basic Medical Research by Brandeis University, Boston (USA), the Canada Gairdner International Award (2018) and the Mendel Medal by the Genetics Society (2022).
About the Clarivate Citation Award
Each year, experts at the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), part of the Clarivate Group, interpret the data in the Web of Science citation index to identify a short list of researchers »of Nobel class« - an approach which enables ISI to forecast future Nobel prize recipients. Out of more than 61 million articles and proceedings indexed in the Web of Science since 1970, only about 9,000 (0.01%) have been cited 2,000 or more times. It is from the authors of this group of papers in the Nobel categories Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics that Citation Laureates are identified and selected. They are individuals whose research and contributions in their fields have been extremely influential, even transformative. Since 2002, the experts at the ISI have accurately forecast 75 Citation Laureates who have gone on to become Nobel Laureates.
