mRNA vaccines and therapeutics

Medicines that deliver genetic instructions to cells, and the lipid particles that carry them.

The United States leads mRNA vaccines and therapeutics research, with 38.7% of the 10% most cited papers published 2021–2025; China is second with 16.1%.

Includes clinical trials and population studies of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which are a large part of the most cited work in 2021 and 2022.

FirstUnited States38.7%

SecondChina16.1%

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

Highlight a country

Standings

1USUnited States38.7%2CNChina16.1%3DEGermany3.5%4–5CACanada3.4%4–5JPJapan3.3%6AUAustralia2.7%7GBUnited Kingdom2.5%8ILIsrael2.3%9KRSouth Korea2.2%10–11ITItaly1.8%

Share of the 10% most cited papers, 2021–2025; 970 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
Lipid nanoparticle chemistry, formulation and stability	198	USUnited States34.0%	CNChina15.1%	JPJapan5.6%
Targeted delivery to organs and cells	157	USUnited States51.7%	CNChina22.6%	AUAustralia3.9%
Immune responses to mRNA vaccines and variant escape	144	USUnited States57.6%	DEGermany6.7%	GBUnited Kingdom4.8%
Other mRNA therapeutics and platform reviews	112	USUnited States25.7%	CNChina14.0%	DEGermany5.6%
mRNA cancer vaccines and immunotherapy	80	CNChina36.5%	USUnited States29.3%	KRSouth Korea3.6%
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in populations	58	USUnited States45.2%	ILIsrael8.1%	GBUnited Kingdom6.9%
Vaccine safety (myocarditis, side effects)	45	USUnited States40.3%	ILIsrael9.0%	GBUnited Kingdom7.3%
Nanoparticle drug delivery beyond mRNA	41	CNChina28.1%	USUnited States26.5%	INIndia9.7%
Responses in immunocompromised and special patient groups	35	USUnited States38.6%	ILIsrael11.4%	DEGermany10.6%

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 42.3%33.6%−8.8 pts

CNChina 9.8%25.1%+15.3 pts

DEGermany 4.3%2.4%−2.0 pts

CACanada 4.0%2.4%−1.6 pts

JPJapan 3.4%3.1%−0.2 pts

AUAustralia 1.4%4.5%+3.1 pts

GBUnited Kingdom 3.4%1.3%−2.1 pts

ILIsrael 3.4%0.8%−2.5 pts

Greyed rows rest on fewer than five papers of credit in one period.

Share of the 10% most cited papers: 570 papers in 2021–2023, 400 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 (1,927), 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.

CNChina30.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
USUnited States23.9%of 2026 papers have an author here
INIndia9.2%of 2026 papers have an author here
KRSouth Korea4.8%of 2026 papers have an author here
JPJapan4.5%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 30.9%27.1%+3.8

CNChina 54.2%16.8%+37.4

GBUnited Kingdom 13.4%5.3%+8.1

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

1USUniversity of Pennsylvania5.9%
2USThe Ohio State University1.2%
3USMassachusetts Institute of Technology1.1%
4USIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai1.1%
5CNZhejiang University0.9%
6CAUniversity of British Columbia0.9%
7USHarvard University0.8%
8ILTel Aviv University0.8%
9USModerna Therapeutics (United States)Company0.8%
10DEBioNTech (Germany)Company0.7%

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

Who does the work

Sector	All	US	CN	DE
Universities	63.4%	68.0%	66.3%	41.3%
Hospitals	14.9%	15.2%	14.9%	15.6%
Companies	7.3%	6.9%	1.2%	25.1%
Research facilities	7.0%	2.8%	8.5%	16.0%

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

Across borders

31.8% of the top 10% have authors in more than one country.

CNUSChina with United States53
CAUSCanada with United States35
DEUSGermany with United States22
GBUSUnited Kingdom with United States18
AUUSAustralia with United States14

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.

BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine in a Nationwide Mass Vaccination Setting
New England Journal of Medicine, 2021ILUS
2,529citations
Lipid NanoparticlesFrom Liposomes to mRNA Vaccine Delivery, a Landscape of Research Diversity and Advancement
ACS Nano, 2021US
2,200citations
Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine through 6 Months
New England Journal of Medicine, 2021US
1,576citations
mRNA-lipid nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccines: Structure and stability
International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 2021BECANL
1,547citations
Personalized RNA neoantigen vaccines stimulate T cells in pancreatic cancer
Nature, 2023DEUS
1,398citations

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.

"mRNA vaccine" OR "mRNA vaccines" OR "mRNA therapeutics" OR "lipid nanoparticle" OR "self-amplifying RNA" OR "mRNA delivery"

and its main topic in OpenAlex is one of: RNA Interference and Gene Delivery; Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery; SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research; Immunotherapy and Immune Responses; Viral Infections and Immunology Research; Advanced Drug Delivery Systems; RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms; vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches; Influenza Virus Research Studies; Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers. The topic check removes papers that only mention the technology.

Papers matched, 2021–2025: 9,824
In the top 10%: 970
In the top 1%: 102
Countries with credit: 70
Credit with no known country: 7.1%

Every one of the 1,192 most cited papers was checked for relevance; 129 were left out as not about mrna vaccines and therapeutics

The most cited of those left out:

Comparative analysis of the risks of hospitalisation and death associated with SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1.529) and delta (B.1.617.2) variants in England: a cohort study1,221 citations
Alarming antibody evasion properties of rising SARS-CoV-2 BQ and XBB subvariants908 citations
Antibody evasion properties of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineages811 citations
Immune checkpoint therapy for solid tumours: clinical dilemmas and future trends587 citations
Polyethylene Glycol Immunogenicity: Theoretical, Clinical, and Practical Aspects of Anti-Polyethylene Glycol Antibodies563 citations
Nanocarrier Drug Delivery Systems: Characterization, Limitations, Future Perspectives and Implementation of Artificial Intelligence531 citations
Advances of nanoparticles as drug delivery systems for disease diagnosis and treatment516 citations
Evolution of drug delivery systems: From 1950 to 2020 and beyond474 citations
Nanocarriers-Mediated Drug Delivery Systems for Anticancer Agents: An Overview and Perspectives389 citations
Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs): An Advanced Drug Delivery System Targeting Brain through BBB316 citations
Intranasal delivery of nanostructured lipid carriers, solid lipid nanoparticles and nanoemulsions: A current overview of in vivo studies303 citations
SARS-CoV-2 Reinfections: Overview of Efficacy and Duration of Natural and Hybrid Immunity264 citations

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

Read the method