Gene editing

Rewriting DNA at chosen sites, with CRISPR and the tools that followed it.

The United States leads gene editing research, with 32.2% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; China is second with 27.4%.

FirstUnited States32.2%

SecondChina27.4%

1.2×lead, by share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025

Highlight a country

Standings

1USUnited States32.2%2CNChina27.4%3KRSouth Korea4.2%4INIndia4.0%5DEGermany2.5%6GBUnited Kingdom2.4%7CHSwitzerland1.9%8–11IRIran1.6%8–11NLNetherlands1.6%8–11CACanada1.6%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 1,155 papers. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Year by year

Share of the 10% most cited papers published in each year. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Inside the field

Always the top 10%Pilot

Each paper sorted into one sub-area by an AI model reading its title and abstract, then credited as usual. On 200 hand-labelled papers it chose the same sub-area, or a defensible second, 92% of the time.

Sub-area	Papers	First	Second	Third
Plant, crop and agricultural genome editing	212	CNChina29.6%	USUnited States18.4%	INIndia11.8%
New CRISPR systems, RNA editing and epigenome editing	160	USUnited States51.6%	CNChina18.8%	KRSouth Korea3.3%
General reviews and regulation	121	CNChina25.5%	USUnited States14.4%	INIndia7.9%
CRISPR-based diagnostics and biosensing	114	CNChina61.6%	USUnited States13.8%	KRSouth Korea3.2%
Therapeutic gene editing and gene therapy	107	USUnited States35.9%	CNChina18.1%	IRIran5.6%
Off-target effects, DNA repair and editing safety	91	USUnited States44.5%	CNChina15.2%	DEGermany5.6%
Delivery of gene editors (nanoparticles, viral vectors)	89	USUnited States38.7%	CNChina20.1%	KRSouth Korea4.3%
Prime editing	68	USUnited States34.1%	CNChina32.2%	KRSouth Korea12.8%
CRISPR screens and functional genomics	67	USUnited States66.0%	GBUnited Kingdom10.9%	CNChina6.0%
Base editing	67	CNChina36.3%	USUnited States26.1%	KRSouth Korea10.1%

Share of each sub-area's papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Earlier and recent

The same top 10%, split into 2021–2023 and 2024–2025.

FallingRising2021–20232024–2025Change

USUnited States 35.2%27.8%−7.3 pts

CNChina 23.5%33.0%+9.5 pts

KRSouth Korea 3.7%5.0%+1.2 pts

INIndia 4.3%3.5%−0.8 pts

DEGermany 2.8%2.1%−0.7 pts

GBUnited Kingdom 2.5%2.1%−0.4 pts

CHSwitzerland 1.9%1.9%+0.0 pts

IRIran 1.3%2.0%+0.7 pts

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 681 papers in 2021–2023, 474 in 2024–2025. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

2026 so far: a different count

Not the most cited papers: every 2026 paper matched so far (1,909), and a paper counts in full for each country on it. This year's papers are too new to rank by citations, so these shares cannot be compared with the ones above.

CNChina33.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
USUnited States26.6%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia7.1%of 2026 papers have an author here
DEGermany4.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
JPJapan4.0%of 2026 papers have an author here

Who cites the top papers

How much more often a country's top papers are cited from home than its size predicts. Expected is the country's share of all papers in the field; the bar is the excess, in percentage points. Home citers include authors citing their own earlier work.

HomeExpectedExcess

USUnited States 38.1%29.6%+8.5

CNChina 50.6%28.4%+22.2

KRSouth Korea 9.1%4.2%+4.9

INIndia 27.8%5.7%+22.1

Based on up to 100 of each country's most cited single-country papers in the top 10%. Source: OpenAlex, pulled 18 October 2026. Method

Behind the share

Institutions with the most credit

1USHarvard University1.4%
2USUniversity of California, Berkeley1.2%
3USBroad InstituteNon-profit1.2%
4USUniversity of Massachusetts Chan Medical School1.1%
5USStanford University1.0%
6CNChinese Academy of SciencesGovernment lab1.0%
7USHoward Hughes Medical InstituteResearch facility1.0%
8CHUniversity of Zurich0.9%
9USUniversity of California, San Francisco0.9%
10CNHuazhong Agricultural University0.8%

Share of the top 10%. Institutions across all 45 technologies

Who does the work

Sector	All	US	CN	KR
Universities	65.1%	65.4%	69.6%	69.8%
Research facilities	13.8%	9.0%	10.4%	17.4%
Hospitals	8.6%	11.4%	10.0%	8.1%
Government labs	4.6%	1.2%	7.4%	2.1%

Share of credit by type of institution, overall and for the three leading countries.

Across borders

35.2% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNUSChina with United States71
GBUSUnited Kingdom with United States28
DEUSGermany with United States27
INUSIndia with United States23
CHUSSwitzerland with United States20

Most frequent pairings, by number of shared papers.

The papers behind the numbers

The five most cited papers this definition catches. If one looks out of place, the definition needs work.

CRISPR technology: A decade of genome editing is only the beginning
Science, 2023US
1,048citations
Genome engineering for crop improvement and future agriculture
Cell, 2021CN
1,003citations
Enhanced prime editing systems by manipulating cellular determinants of editing outcomes
Cell, 2021US
809citations
Inference of CRISPR Edits from Sanger Trace Data
The CRISPR Journal, 2022US
804citations
In vivo CRISPR base editing of PCSK9 durably lowers cholesterol in primates
Nature, 2021CAUS
783citations

How this technology is defined

A paper counts if its title or abstract matches the search below. Articles in core journals and proceedings only; retracted papers are excluded.

CRISPR OR "gene editing" OR "genome editing" OR "base editing" OR "prime editing" OR Cas9

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: CRISPR and Genetic Engineering; Virus-based gene therapy research; DNA Repair Mechanisms; Genetically Modified Organisms Research. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 11,539
In the top 10%: 1,155
In the top 1%: 117
Countries with credit: 77
Credit with no known country: 3.3%

Every one of the 1,503 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 41 were left out as not about gene editing

The most cited of those left out:

Recent trends in cancer therapy: A review on the current state of gene delivery235 citations
Identification and classification of antiviral defence systems in bacteria and archaea with PADLOC reveals new system types227 citations
Successes and challenges in clinical gene therapy183 citations
Directed evolution of adeno-associated virus for efficient gene delivery to microglia166 citations
RHINO directs MMEJ to repair DNA breaks in mitosis142 citations
The CIP2A–TOPBP1 axis safeguards chromosome stability and is a synthetic lethal target for BRCA-mutated cancer118 citations
Current State of Human Gene Therapy: Approved Products and Vectors112 citations
The Card1 nuclease provides defence during type III CRISPR immunity110 citations
CRISPR-Cas systems are widespread accessory elements across bacterial and archaeal plasmids110 citations
Coevolution between bacterial CRISPR-Cas systems and their bacteriophages103 citations
A nucleotide-sensing endonuclease from the Gabija bacterial defense system100 citations
The Multifaceted Roles of Ku70/80100 citations

Definition version 0.5, pilot. It is a plain text file: copy it, change it, rerun it.

Read the method