Unlike in 2004, when EU researchers easily outstripped US scientists in ouput of biotech papers, last year the two regions produced a nearly identical volume of biotech-related papers. South Korea dropped out of the top 15 countries in terms of biotech paper output, (92 and 16 papers in 2004 and 2005, respectively) making way for Belgium. Papers from US institutions, such as Harvard and MIT, are by far the most cited. Research in metabolomics and nanotech was particularly fertile, whereas previously booming fields, such as proteomics and RNAi, plateaued in paper output.

Source: In-Cites, Essential Science Indicators
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information's PubMed
Source: National Center for Biotechnology Information's PubMed
Source: ISI categories Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology; Engineering, Biomedical
Source: ISI Web of Knowledge, as of March 14