Six researchers from the Clinic and Cima among the world's most cited scientists this year 

The 2025 edition of the Highly Cited Researchers list of the world's most cited scientists, published this morning, includes six researchers from the University of Navarra Clinic and Cima: Dr. Ignacio Melero, Dr. Bruno Sangro, Dr. Antonio González, Dr. Miguel Fernández de Sanmamed, and Dr. María Rodríguez Ruiz—all dedicated to the fight against cancer—and Dr. Gema Frühbeck, director of the Clinic's Metabolic Research Laboratory and co-director of the Obesity Unit.

Dr. Ignacio Melero, professor at the University of Navarra School of Medicine, appears in this ranking for the sixth time. He leads the work on immunology and immunotherapy for cancer at Cima and the Clinic, a dedication he shares with his research work at the Center for Immuno-Oncology at the University of Oxford. He has authored 390 articles in international scientific journals, and his work has been cited more than 40,000 times.

Highly Cited Researchers includes Dr. Gema Frühbeck for the first time. She is the director of the Metabolic Research Laboratory, co-director of the Obesity Area at the Clinic, and group leader at CIBER for Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition 

A specialist in endocrinology and nutrition and a clinical researcher trained in Navarra and Cambridge, she focuses her attention on adipose tissue and devised an equation to reflect the estimated percentage of fat, which provides more complete information about each person's body composition. She is the author of 457 scientific articles, which have been cited more than 36,000 times.

Dr. Bruno Sangro, coordinator of the Liver and Pancreatic Cancer Area at the CCUN, and Dr. Antonio González, director of the CCUN, are included for the second time among this group of international scientific leaders. Dr. Sangro also heads the Clinic's Hepatology Unit, is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, and is the principal investigator at the CIBEREHD of the Carlos III Health Institute. Focusing on patients with liver cancer, he has more than 350 publications and over 30,000 scientific citations.

Dr. Antonio González combines his role as director of the CCUN and the Medical Oncology Department at the Clinic with his work as a specialist in the Gynecological Cancer Area and co-principal investigator of the Translational Oncology group at Cima. He is also president of the Spanish Gynecological Cancer Research Group (GEICO) and actively participates in international groups that promote studies of novel treatments for these diseases.

Two other oncologists dedicated to cancer immunotherapy also appear on the list: Dr. Miguel Fernández de Sanmamed, for the third year, and Dr. María Rodríguez Ruiz, for the first time. Dr. Fernández de Sanmamed is the principal investigator of the Applied and Translational Onco-Immunology group at Cima and a specialist in the Lung Cancer Area at CCUN. He completed his training at Yale University and has led more than 30 early-stage clinical trials and various research projects, such as the CRIS Excellence program. He is a professor at the University of Navarra and an associate professor at Yale University. Dr. Rodríguez Ruiz, a researcher in the Combined Translational Immunotherapy Strategies group at Cima and a specialist in the Radiation Oncology Department at CCUN, focuses her work on clinical trials and experimental cancer immunotherapy in combination with radiation therapy. She completed her training with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Immunoradiotherapy program at Weill Cornell University (New York, United States).

A list of 7,131 scientists from 60 countries
The Highly Cited Researchers list is published annually by Clarivate Analytics, an international consulting firm specializing in data analysis. The 2025 edition recognizes 7,131 scientists from 60 countries. Clarivate notes that each researcher “has demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field of research” and points out that the list is based on data from its Web of Science index, which is subjected to qualitative analysis by experts from its Institute of Scientific Information.