About the VHIR
Here at the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) we promote biomedical research, innovation and teaching. Over 1,800 people are seeking to understand diseases today so the treatment can be improved tomorrow.
Research
We are working to understand diseases, to find out how they operate and to create better treatments for patients. Get to know about our groups and their lines of research.
People
People are the centre of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). This is why we are bound by the principles of freedom of research, gender equality and professional attitudes that HRS4R promotes.
Clinical trials
Our work is not just basic or translational; we are leaders in clinical research. Enter and find about the clinical trials we are conducting and why we are a world reference in this field.
Progress
Our aim is to make the research carried out at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) a driving force for transformation. How? By identifying new channels and solutions for the promotion of people's health and well-being.
Core facilities
We offer specialist support for researchers, internal and external alike, ranging from specific services to preparing complete projects. All this, from a perspective of quality and speed of response.
News
We offer you a gateway for staying up to date on everything going on at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), from the latest news to future solidarity activities and initiatives that we are organising.
The research conducted in our group is geared toward elucidating the cause and molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease (PD), a disabling, currently incurable common neurodegenerative disorder. To this end, we perform clinical and pre-clinical translational research in both PD patients and in human-relevant experimental in vitro and in vivo PD-related models.
Elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in PD should allow to:
Formation and accumulation of abnormal protein aggregates are a central hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases. In Parkinson’s disease (PD), the aggregation-prone protein á-synuclein accumulates in several areas of the central and peripheral nervous system. Pathological á-synuclein accumulation in PD can result from (i) abnormally increased á-synuclein expression, (ii) defective intracellular clearance of á-synuclein protein, (iii) progressive self-propagation and spreading of pathological á-synuclein between interconnected brain areas. Targeting á-synuclein pathological changes may provide therapeutic benefit to delay, halt or prevent neuronal dysfunction and degeneration in PD.
IP: Miquel Vila Bover
Despite intensive efforts towards understanding the aetiology/pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the development of novel therapeutic approaches for this neurodegenerative condition, the current treatment for PD remains symptomatic and yet far from modifying disease onset or progression. Before the manifestation of the classical motor symptoms, PD patients present with non-motor symptoms in a prodromal phase. The identification of deregulated molecular pathways or genes in peripheral blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid from these prodromal patients may help develop potential biomarkers for the early detection, diagnosis, risk assessment and/or progression of PD, which are currently lacking, as well as to stratify patients at very early stages to apply more specific, personalized disease-modifying treatments.
IP: Miquel Vila Bover, Ariadna Laguna Tuset
Defective lysosomal-mediated turnover of mitochondria may play a pathogenic role in Huntington’s disease neurodegeneration.
IP: Marta Martínez Vicente
In Parkinson's disease (PD), there is a selective degeneration of neurons that contain a dark-brown pigment called neuromelanin, especially dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra, which leads to the classical motor symptoms of the disease. However, the physiological significance of neuromelanin and its potential contribution to PD pathogenesis remain unknown.
IP: Ariadna Laguna Tuset Collaborators: - Funding agency: EUROPEAN COMMISSION Funding: 10000 Reference: EC/IMPETUS/2025/PAIR_LAGUNA Duration: 01/06/2025 - 01/06/2026
IP: Miquel Vila Bover Collaborators: - Funding agency: Michael J. Fox Foundation Funding: 441200 Reference: MJF/NETWORKS/2024/VILA Duration: 01/07/2025 - 30/06/2027
IP: Ariadna Laguna Tuset Collaborators: Silvia Enriquez Calzada, Maria Victoria Gonzalez Martinez, Jorge Hernández Vara, Sara Mas Assens, Sara Belmonte Calderon Funding agency: Fundació "La Caixa" Funding: 49802.5 Reference: CX24-00187 Duration: 15/09/2025 - 14/09/2027
IP: Ariadna Laguna Tuset Collaborators: Silvia Enriquez Calzada, Sara Belmonte Calderon, Adriana Zucchiatti Llanos, Sabrina Ayelen Gatti Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III Funding: 265000 Reference: PI24/00253 Duration: 01/01/2025 - 31/12/2027
PhD student: Alba Nicolau Vera Director/s: Miquel Vila Bover University: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2025
PhD student: Camille Guillard Sirieix Director/s: Miquel Vila Bover University: Year: 2024
PhD student: Núria Peñuelas Peñarroya Director/s: Miquel Vila Bover, Ariadna Laguna Tuset University: Year: 2023
PhD student: Jordi Galiano Landeira Director/s: Jordi Bove Badell University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2021
PhD student: Albert Torra i Talavera Director/s: Jordi Bove Badell, Miquel Vila Bover University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2019
PhD student: Sandra Franco Iborra Director/s: Miquel Vila Bover University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2018
PhD student: Oriol de Fabregues-Boixar Nebot Director/s: Francesc Miquel Rodriguez, Miquel Vila Bover University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2016
This VHIR initiative promotes well-being, empathy and community participation in Barcelona neighbourhoods through an intergenerational model
PAIR is an intergenerational initiative with people affected by Parkinson's disease and adolescents.
The nomination recognises the work she has led together with Dr. Núria Peñuelas and Dr. Miquel Vila, on the generation of new preclinical models to study Parkinson's disease.
Vall d'Hebron Iniciativa per al Parkinson (VHIP) is a research project aimed at the development of biochemical markers for the early detection of Parkinson's disease. This study is carried out in people at high risk of having this disease, because they carry genetic mutations that predispose to the development of Parkinson's or because they present non-motor symptoms that manifest themselves years before motor symptoms.
