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Subfield · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Structural Biology research

Structural Biology is a subfield of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology. Science Explorer counts 22k research works in it since 1950. 25.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of molecular structures in biology.

Research works
22k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
5.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
25.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
1
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+11%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Structural Biology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, Germany and China rank highest in Structural Biology. By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1k and 416 works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 22.4% top 10% · 1k works
  2. 2 Germany · #2 all time 25.7% top 10% · 386 works
  3. 3 China · #7 all time 23.7% top 10% · 416 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom · #3 all time 25.2% top 10% · 205 works
  5. 5 Japan · #4 all time 13.5% top 10% · 238 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 5 countries ranked in Structural Biology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Structural Biology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States 1k works
  2. 2 China 416 works
  3. 3 Germany 386 works
  4. 4 Japan 239 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 205 works
  6. 6 France 161 works
  7. 7 South Korea 77 works
  8. 8 Netherlands 75 works
  9. 9 Russia 74 works
  10. 10 Switzerland 68 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 37.8%China: 15.2%Germany: 14.1%Japan: 8.7%6 others listed: 24.2%38%largest
United States1,032 · 37.8%China416 · 15.2%Germany386 · 14.1%Japan239 · 8.7%6 others listed661 · 24.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Structural Biology research?

By volume in 2022–2025, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory publishes the most Structural Biology research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Argonne National Laboratory.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryUnited States 31 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 25 works
  3. 3 Argonne National LaboratoryUnited States 25 works
  4. 4 University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 24 works
  5. 5 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 24 works
  6. 6 Oak Ridge National LaboratoryUnited States 23 works
  7. 7 Tsinghua UniversityChina 23 works
  8. 8 Brookhaven National LaboratoryUnited States 20 works
  9. 9 Cornell UniversityUnited States 20 works
  10. 10 Stanford UniversityUnited States 19 works

Who are the leading researchers in Structural Biology?

Among the most productive authors in Structural Biology, F. M. Giorgi, C. Liu and Arun Majumdar rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 F. M. Giorgi Germany · #515 worldwide 5.5k citations · 227 works
  2. 2 C. Liu United Kingdom · #1,133 worldwide 4k citations · 140 works
  3. 3 Arun Majumdar United States · #1,626 worldwide 3.1k citations · 95 works
  4. 4 Mark Gerstein United States · #2,007 worldwide 2.3k citations · 99 works
  5. 5 A. Paul Alivisatos United States · #2,072 worldwide 3.2k citations · 126 works
  6. 6 Yi Cui United States · #2,076 worldwide 5k citations · 138 works
  7. 7 Emad Tajkhorshid United States · #2,303 worldwide 2.3k citations · 96 works
  8. 8 David I. Stuart United Kingdom · #2,733 worldwide 1.6k citations · 83 works
  9. 9 Pablo Ordejón Spain · #2,998 worldwide 3.9k citations · 67 works
  10. 10 Tony F. Heinz United States · #3,541 worldwide 2.6k citations · 143 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 3,357 highest-output authors in Structural Biology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Structural Biology researchers

Where is Structural Biology research done?

The largest centres of Structural Biology research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Tokyo (Japan), Berkeley (United States) and Paris (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Upton, Menlo Park and Lemont.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 137 works
  2. 2 Tokyo Japan 69 works
  3. 3 Berkeley United States 57 works
  4. 4 Paris France 56 works
  5. 5 Hamburg Germany 43 works
  6. 6 Shanghai China 42 works
  7. 7 New York United States 40 works
  8. 8 London United Kingdom 40 works
  9. 9 Moscow Russia 39 works
  10. 10 Berlin Germany 33 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. UptonUS · 20.1 works61×
  2. Menlo ParkUS · 23.8 works48×
  3. LemontUS · 24.9 works39×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Structural Biology than the world average.

See Structural Biology on the map

Structural Biology research by country

The best places for Structural Biology research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Structural Biology?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Göttingen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 28.57%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →University of Göttingen: 12, 36.1%Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 18, 36.6%École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: 15, 34.1%Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg: 14, 30.6%University of California, Berkeley: 24, 24.1%University of Antwerp: 15, 25.6%Arizona State University: 18, 15.9%University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: 17, 32.5%Technion – Israel Institute of Technology: 15, 17.0%California Institute of Technology: 9, 33.2%Massachusetts Instit…University of Göttin…École Polytechnique …Friedrich-Alexander-…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 University of GöttingenGermany 62.536.1%13.0×12 +135.2%
2 Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 58.936.6%9.0×18 +27.7%
3 École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland 57.734.1%11.0×15 -0.6%
4 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-NürnbergGermany 56.930.6%9.2×14 +109.0%
5 University of California, BerkeleyUnited States 55.924.1%8.6×24 +69.0%
6 University of AntwerpBelgium 51.425.6%15.6×15 -13.0%
7 Arizona State UniversityUnited States 47.315.9%8.4×18 +84.8%
8 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 47.232.5%3.1×17 +372.4%
9 Technion – Israel Institute of TechnologyIsrael 47.217.0%14.0×15 +18.3%
10 California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 45.333.2%11.2×9 -25.6%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Structural Biology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 11% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does Structural Biology include?