World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Best Scientists
2025
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Biology and Biochemistry
USA
2026

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Best Scientists

D-Index
252
Citations
420018
World Ranking
47
National Ranking
31

Biology and Biochemistry

D-Index
258
Citations
449341
World Ranking
5
National Ranking
3

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2020 - Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE)
  • 2019 - National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award
  • 2012 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Rob Knight is affiliated with the University of California, San Diego in the United States. Their research spans multiple fields, primarily focusing on biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and medicine. Within these domains, their work addresses several subfields such as molecular biology, physiology, infectious diseases, public health, environmental and occupational health, and ecology.

The scientist's research topics include:

  • Gut microbiota and health
  • Diet and metabolism studies
  • Metabolomics and mass spectrometry studies
  • Nutritional studies and diet
  • Genomics and phylogenetic studies
  • Tryptophan and brain disorders
  • Clostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens research

Rob Knight has published extensively, contributing to journals and venues such as:

  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • mSystems
  • Gastroenterology
  • Alzheimer's & Dementia
  • Circulation

Frequent co-authors working alongside Rob Knight include:

  • Daniel McDonald
  • Pieter C. Dorrestein
  • Qiyun Zhu
  • Cameron Martino
  • Austin D. Swafford

Among the more recent papers associated with Rob Knight are:

  • Large-scale association analyses identify host factors influencing human gut microbiome composition, 2021, Nature Genetics
  • The microbiome and human cancer, 2021, Science
  • RETRACTED ARTICLE: Microbiome analyses of blood and tissues suggest cancerdiagnostic approach, 2020, Nature
  • Structure-based protein function prediction using graph convolutional networks, 2021, Nature Communications
  • Precise phylogenetic analysis of microbial isolates and genomes from metagenomes using PhyloPhlAn 3.0, 2020, Nature Communications

Rob Knight has been recognized with several awards, including:

  • Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), 2020
  • National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, 2019
  • Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2012

Best Publications

  • QIIME allows analysis of high-throughput community sequencing data.

    J Gregory Caporaso;Justin Kuczynski;Jesse Stombaugh;Kyle Bittinger

  • Reproducible, interactive, scalable and extensible microbiome data science using QIIME 2

    Evan Bolyen;Jai Ram Rideout;Matthew R. Dillon;Nicholas A. Bokulich

  • UCHIME improves sensitivity and speed of chimera detection

    Robert C. Edgar;Brian J. Haas;Jose C. Clemente;Christopher Quince

  • Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome

    Curtis Huttenhower;Curtis Huttenhower;Dirk Gevers;Rob Knight;Rob Knight;Sahar Abubucker

  • Global patterns of 16S rRNA diversity at a depth of millions of sequences per sample

    J. Gregory Caporaso;Christian L. Lauber;William A. Walters;Donna Berg-Lyons

  • Ultra-high-throughput microbial community analysis on the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platforms

    J. Gregory Caporaso;Christian L Lauber;William A. Walters;Donna Berg-Lyons

  • Predictive functional profiling of microbial communities using 16S rRNA marker gene sequences

    Morgan G I Langille;Jesse Zaneveld;J Gregory Caporaso;J Gregory Caporaso;Daniel McDonald

  • A core gut microbiome in obese and lean twins

    Peter J. Turnbaugh;Micah Hamady;Tanya Yatsunenko;Brandi L. Cantarel

  • Human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography

    Tanya Yatsunenko;Federico E Rey;Mark J Manary;Mark J Manary;Indi Trehan;Indi Trehan

  • UniFrac: a New Phylogenetic Method for Comparing Microbial Communities

    Catherine Lozupone;Rob Knight

  • Linking Long-Term Dietary Patterns with Gut Microbial Enterotypes

    Gary D. Wu;Jun Chen;Christian Hoffmann;Christian Hoffmann;Kyle Bittinger

  • The human microbiome project.

    Peter J. Turnbaugh;Ruth E. Ley;Micah Hamady;Claire M. Fraser-Liggett

  • Optimizing taxonomic classification of marker-gene amplicon sequences with QIIME 2’s q2-feature-classifier plugin

    Nicholas A. Bokulich;Benjamin D. Kaehler;Jai Ram Rideout;Matthew Dillon

  • Diversity, stability and resilience of the human gut microbiota

    Catherine A. Lozupone;Jesse I. Stombaugh;Jeffrey I. Gordon;Janet K. Jansson

  • An improved Greengenes taxonomy with explicit ranks for ecological and evolutionary analyses of bacteria and archaea

    Daniel McDonald;Morgan N Price;Julia Goodrich;Julia Goodrich;Eric P Nawrocki

  • Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns

    Maria G. Dominguez-Bello;Elizabeth K. Costello;Elizabeth K. Costello;Monica Contreras;Magda Magris

  • Soil bacterial and fungal communities across a pH gradient in an arable soil.

    Johannes Rousk;Erland Bååth;Philip C Brookes;Christian L Lauber

  • Gut Microbiota from Twins Discordant for Obesity Modulate Metabolism in Mice

    Vanessa K. Ridaura;Jeremiah J. Faith;Federico E. Rey;Jiye Cheng

  • Pyrosequencing-based assessment of soil pH as a predictor of soil bacterial community structure at the continental scale.

    Christian L. Lauber;Micah Hamady;Rob Knight;Noah Fierer;Noah Fierer

  • Evolution of mammals and their gut microbes

    Ruth E. Ley;Micah Hamady;Catherine Lozupone;Catherine Lozupone;Peter J. Turnbaugh

Frequent Co-Authors

Pieter C. Dorrestein
Pieter C. Dorrestein University of California, San Diego
Jack A. Gilbert
Jack A. Gilbert University of California, San Diego
J. Gregory Caporaso
J. Gregory Caporaso Northern Arizona University
Noah Fierer
Noah Fierer University of Colorado Boulder
Catherine A. Lozupone
Catherine A. Lozupone University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Dan Knights
Dan Knights University of Minnesota
Curtis Huttenhower
Curtis Huttenhower Harvard University
Ruth E. Ley
Ruth E. Ley Max Planck Society
Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza
Yoshiki Vázquez-Baeza University of California, San Diego
Se Jin Song
Se Jin Song University of California, San Diego

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