Group led by Dr. Alexis Kalergis among the 10 most productive scientific teams in the world in advancing against respiratory syncytial virus

Around the world, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute respiratory infections in children under 2 years old. An independent study, published this August 2025, conducted a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of the last five years to determine the characteristics, critical points, and limits of global scientific production.

After a quantitative analysis of scientific productivity, Dr. Alexis Kalergis, Full Professor at UC, director of the Millennium Institute in Immunology and Immunotherapy (IMII), and Director of the Clinical Molecular Biomedicine Consortium (BMRC)—a team currently developing the first Chilean vaccine against RSV and the first vaccine against human Metapneumovirus—is highlighted among the top 10 most productive authors in this field of research around the world. This group of top 10 scientists contributed 405 publications, representing 5.6% of the total amount of articles in the last five years on this topic, coming from 7 countries/regions, indicating that many researchers worldwide are dedicated to the study of this virus. It is noteworthy that the only Latin American institution highlighted in this group is the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC).

This report, titled "Critical Research Points and Global Trends of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Recent Years," contributed by scientists from the Collaborative Innovation Center for the Prevention and Control of Zoonoses and the Division of Infectious Diseases of the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinzhou Medical University, China, highlighted the advances where the version of the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) was retrieved for publications and record information published between 2020 and 2024.

"It is a great honor to receive this important mention as one of the 10 most productive scientific groups that have contributed to the knowledge about respiratory syncytial virus. We receive this recognition with much gratitude and lowliness, which is shared with a large group of collaborators and young scientists who, as a team, aspire to impact society positively through the science we develop in Chilean universities," said the UC academic. The report used software to analyze bibliometric indicators, and the research trends and critical points of RSV were visualized using VOSviewer and Citespace. The influence of the articles was evaluated with the Global Citation Score (GCS). A total of 7,238 articles and comments were searched.

"This team has demonstrated that through basic, fundamental, applied, and clinical scientific research and communication, we can contribute to the development of public policies searching for a higher quality of life for our population, both nationally and internationally. The importance of this recognition we receive as a group is to highlight the scientific contribution we make from our country to the world, based on the quality of the publications and the impact of our scientific research in various disciplines, which also recognizes the great scientific potential of Chile", added the expert.

The United States is the most productive country in the field of RSV research and the country with the closest cooperation with other countries and institutions. Therefore, it is of great relevance that Chile, through UC, is highlighted in this ranking, reinforcing the quality of scientific research developed in our country.
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