World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
Susumu Tonegawa

Susumu Tonegawa

Award Badge
Best Scientists
2025
Award Badge
Biology and Biochemistry
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Best Scientists

D-Index
170
Citations
113907
World Ranking
874
National Ranking
521

Neuroscience

D-Index
169
Citations
113248
World Ranking
76
National Ranking
49

Biology and Biochemistry

D-Index
171
Citations
116440
World Ranking
85
National Ranking
66

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2026 - Research.com Neuroscience in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Best Scientists Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Biology and Biochemistry in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Neuroscience in United States Leader Award
  • 2019 - Distinguished Fellows of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
  • 2006 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • 1987 - Nobel Prize for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity
  • 1987 - Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, Lasker Foundation
  • 1986 - Robert Koch Prize
  • 1986 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 1984 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • 1983 - Canada Gairdner International Award
  • 1982 - Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Columbia University

Overview

Susumu Tonegawa is affiliated with MIT in the United States and has a research focus primarily in the field of Neuroscience. Their work spans several subfields, including Cognitive Neuroscience, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Neurology, and Artificial Intelligence.

The scientist's research areas cover diverse topics such as Memory and Neural Mechanisms, Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research, Neural dynamics and brain function, Uterine Myomas and Treatments, Sleep and Wakefulness Research, Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms, and Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research.

Tonegawa has published extensively, with frequent publication venues including:

  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Nature Communications
  • Nature Neuroscience
  • Science
  • Neuron

Some of the recent papers authored or co-authored by Tonegawa include:

  • Memory engrams: Recalling the past and imagining the future (2020, Science)
  • Amygdala Reward Neurons Form and Store Fear Extinction Memory (2020, Neuron)
  • Brain-wide mapping reveals that engrams for a single memory are distributed across multiple brain regions (2022, Nature Communications)
  • Hippocampal neurons represent events as transferable units of experience (2020, Nature Neuroscience)
  • Reinforcement biases subsequent perceptual decisions when confidence is low, a widespread behavioral phenomenon (2020, eLife)

Frequent collaborators throughout their career have included Dheeraj S. Roy, Jared Martin, Daigo Takeuchi, Ikuo Konishi, and Xiangyu Zhang.

Award recognitions include the Nobel Prize awarded in 1987 for discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity. Other notable awards are the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1987), Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1986), Robert Koch Prize (1986), Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1984), Canada Gairdner International Award (1983), Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (1982), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2006), and Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists (2019).

Best Publications

  • Somatic generation of antibody diversity

    Susumu Tonegawa

  • RAG-1-deficient mice have no mature B and T lymphocytes

    Peter Mombaerts;John Iacomini;Randall Scott Johnson;Karl Herrup

  • The Essential Role of Hippocampal CA1 NMDA Receptor–Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in Spatial Memory

    Joe Z Tsien;Patricio T Huerta;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Optogenetic stimulation of a hippocampal engram activates fear memory recall

    Xu Liu;Steve Ramirez;Petti T. Pang;Corey B. Puryear

  • Deficient Hippocampal Long-Term Potentiation in α-Calcium-Calmodulin Kinase II Mutant Mice

    Alcino J. Silva;Alcino J. Silva;Charles F. Stevens;Charles F. Stevens;Susumu Tonegawa;Susumu Tonegawa;Yanyan Wang;Yanyan Wang

  • A tissue-specific transcription enhancer element is located in the major intron of a rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain gene

    Stephen D. Gillies;Sherie L. Morrison;Vernon T. Oi;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Impaired spatial learning in alpha-calcium-calmodulin kinase II mutant mice

    Alcino J. Silva;Richard Paylor;Jeanne M. Wehner;Susumu Tonegawa;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Reduced stress defense in heme oxygenase 1-deficient cells

    Kenneth D. Poss;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Subregion- and Cell Type–Restricted Gene Knockout in Mouse Brain

    Joe Z Tsien;Dong Feng Chen;David Gerber;Cindy Tom

  • BDNF Regulates the Maturation of Inhibition and the Critical Period of Plasticity in Mouse Visual Cortex

    Z. Josh Huang;Alfredo Kirkwood;Tommaso Pizzorusso;Vittorio Porciatti

  • Mutations in T-cell antigen receptor genes α and β block thymocyte development at different stages

    Peter Mombaerts;Alan R. Clarke;Michael A. Rudnicki;John Iacomini

  • Requirement for Hippocampal CA3 NMDA Receptors in Associative Memory Recall

    Kazu Nakazawa;Michael C. Quirk;Raymond A. Chitwood;Masahiko Watanabe

  • Heme oxygenase 1 is required for mammalian iron reutilization

    Kenneth D. Poss;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Skeletal and CNS defects in Presenilin-1-deficient mice.

    Jie Shen;Roderick T Bronson;Dong Feng Chen;Weiming Xia

  • Translational control by MAPK signaling in long-term synaptic plasticity and memory.

    Raymond J Kelleher;Raymond J Kelleher;Arvind Govindarajan;Hae-Yoon Jung;Hyejin Kang

  • Creating a False Memory in the Hippocampus

    Steve Ramirez;Xu Liu;Xu Liu;Pei-Ann Lin;Junghyup Suh

  • Dentate Gyrus NMDA Receptors Mediate Rapid Pattern Separation in the Hippocampal Network

    Thomas J. McHugh;Matthew W. Jones;Matthew W. Jones;Jennifer J. Quinn;Jennifer J. Quinn;Nina Balthasar;Nina Balthasar

  • GAMMA/DELTA CELLS

    Werner Haas;Pablo Pereira;Susumu Tonegawa

  • Engrams and circuits crucial for systems consolidation of a memory.

    Takashi Kitamura;Sachie K. Ogawa;Dheeraj S. Roy;Teruhiro Okuyama

  • Spontaneous development of inflammatory bowel disease in T cell receptor mutant mice

    Peter Mombaerts;Emiko Mizoguchi;Michael J. Grusby;Laurie H. Glimcher

  • Somatic generation of antibody diversity.

    G Matthyssens;N Hozumi;S Tonegawa

Frequent Co-Authors

David M. Kranz
David M. Kranz University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Yae Kanai
Yae Kanai Keio University
Nobuo Yaegashi
Nobuo Yaegashi Tohoku University
Thomas J. McHugh
Thomas J. McHugh RIKEN Center for Brain Science
Shigeyoshi Itohara
Shigeyoshi Itohara RIKEN Center for Brain Science
Hiroyuki Aburatani
Hiroyuki Aburatani University of Tokyo
Ikuo Konishi
Ikuo Konishi Kyoto University
Hidde L. Ploegh
Hidde L. Ploegh Boston Children's Hospital

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