Japanese researchers Masashi Yanagisawa and Kazunori Kataoka are in the list of 23 world-class researchers named by Clarivate as Citation Laureates for 2023, the international information provider said Tuesday.
Yanagisawa, 63, was chosen in the category of physiology or medicine, and Kataoka, 72, in the chemistry category.
Clarivate names researchers as Citation Laureates if they have made Nobel Prize-level research achievements and their papers are cited frequently. Citation Laureates often win a Nobel Prize.
Yanagisawa, director of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, has contributed to the elucidation of the mechanism of sleep and wakening through the discovery of the wake-promoting substance orexin.
Kataoka, director-general of the Innovation Center of NanoMedicine at the Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion in Kanagawa Prefecture, has developed a method to deliver drugs and genes targeting only specific cells, such as cancer cells, by combining them with special molecules.