The 2025 update of Stanford University’s bibliometric database has identified fourteen researchers affiliated with the Sant Pau Research Institute (IR Sant Pau) among the top 2% of the world’s most influential scientists corresponding to the most recent year analyzed. This classification, based on Scopus data, evaluates nearly one hundred thousand authors across 22 academic fields and annually recognizes those with the greatest global impact on the scientific community.
This is the seventh edition of this compilation, launched in 2019, which has become an international reference tool for measuring scientific influence across disciplines. The ranking is based on normalized indicators that consider essential aspects such as publication volume, citation quality and impact, each researcher’s career trajectory, and their actual weight in each article through metrics such as the C-Score. This approach helps overcome common biases—such as self-citations or the high variability between scientific fields—and provides a more rigorous picture of each author’s true impact on knowledge generation.
The presence of fourteen IR Sant Pau authors in this edition reflects the diversity and strength of the institute’s research areas. Among the recognized researchers, the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Group stands out, led by Dr. Pablo Alonso-Coello, together with Dr. Xavier Bonfill Cosp, Dr. Ivan Solà, and Dr. Maria Ximena Rojas. Their contributions to evidence-based medicine, the critical evaluation of scientific literature, and the development of clinical guidelines have had a direct influence on medical decision-making worldwide and have strengthened IR Sant Pau’s international prestige in this field.
Also included is the Neurobiology of Dementias Group, led by Dr. Alberto Lleó with Dr. Daniel Alcolea as a prominent researcher. Both are international leaders in the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, an area in which Sant Pau has achieved globally recognized standing. Their research has helped redefine the early stages of the disease and promote new diagnostic criteria that are now used worldwide.
In addition, Stanford’s database includes other Sant Pau researchers with impactful careers across multiple specialties. Dr. Cándid Villanueva has excelled in the field of liver disease and gastrointestinal bleeding; Dr. Carol Moreno in hematology and translational research in oncohematologic disorders; Dr. Margarita Majem in thoracic oncology; Dr. Teresa Padró in vascular research and atherosclerotic disease; Dr. Pere Domingo in infectious diseases and HIV; Dr. Lluís Puig in dermatology and immune-mediated diseases; and Dr. Carlos Brotons in primary care, prevention, and community health research. Among these names, Dr. Antonio J. Bayés-De-Luna, a retired cardiologist, also stands out, as his influence remains exceptional thanks to a decades-long scientific career that has decisively contributed to the understanding of cardiac rhythm disorders.
This collective recognition highlights Sant Pau’s role as a generator of high-impact biomedical knowledge and as an institution that integrates clinical, translational, and epidemiological research with a multidisciplinary vision oriented toward the common good. The inclusion of fourteen researchers among the top 2% most influential in the world confirms the strength of their contributions and reinforces the international projection of the IR Sant Pau. This includes fields as diverse as neuroscience, epidemiology, cardiovascular diseases, oncology, infectious diseases, and primary care research.
