Google for genomes

Lists of the most highly cited academic articles garner considerable attention from the research community. But articles that are highly cited in patents don’t receive the same attention. This is surprising given the demand from governments that scientists demonstrate the societal or economic value of their research. Citations of articles in patents are a general indicator of the dynamic between science and technology, and can infer that a piece of research has influenced an invention (see Patently clear). Here, the index profiles three life science articles that have been highly cited in patents. Each article has had profound impact on industry and, eventually, consumers. These papers were selected from the Lens platform, based on articles cited in patents. Each paper had been cited in more than 1,000 patent families by 2016. Patent families represent a single invention. Inventors often file patents in multiple countries, which is why the number of citing patents is larger than the number of patent families. David Lipman, who co-authored