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 group’s basic and clinical research activity, above all, surrounds the fields of inflammation and repair, respiratory insufficiency and tissue hypoxia, and these fields complement one another and are connected through the study of conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, infections, transplants, pulmonary hypertension or sleep-related breathing disorders.
The group has an experimental research laboratory and a clinical research and clinical trial unit. It is made up of professionals from different specialties (pulmonologists, biologists, nurses, laboratory technicians, physiotherapists etc.). This multidisciplinary team provides an added value to the group and guarantees the existence of the critical mass necessary to carry out scientific projects.
Our group is a node that belongs to the CIBERES network (CIBER for respiratory diseases) and also works in collaboration with groups of the highest national and international prestige.
The research effort also focuses on the various diagnostic and therapeutic options for respiratory sleep disorders, and, recently, on the vascular repercussions of these disorders. Currently the Group is participating in several multicenter endeavours in non-invasive mechanical ventilation and in a project financed by the FIS to assess the efficacy of treatment with continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) through a nasal route to reduce arterial pressure values in patients with sleep apnoea and arterial hypertension.
IP: Gabriel Sampol Rubio
The Group is considered a referral team for the diagnosis and treatment of work-related lung diseases in Catalonia, centring mainly on occupational asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, and occupational disease caused by asbestos exposure. It is responsible for the creation and monitoring of the Spanish Registry of Occupational Diseases (EROL), an important task that had not been covered previously.
The Group forms a part of the Grup Col.laboratiu per la Investigació de l’Asma per Soja a Barcelona (Collaborative Research Group for Soy Asthma in Barcelona). Moreover, it is an officially accredited center to carry out daily determinations of environmental levels of soy aeroallergens in Barcelona. For this purpose, the Group has an agreement with the Servicio de Medio Ambiente del Puerto de Barcelona (Environmental Service of the Port of Barcelona), which uses the results of these analyses to monitor the unloading of soy products in the city’s port. This daily monitoring of soy aeroallergen in the city has helped the authorities been to eliminate further asthma epidemics The Group has been given several awards for its work in the area of soy asthma, such as the Fundació Cor Vilacasas award (1993), the Science Award of the City of Barcelona (1995), and the Josep Trueta Award from the Acadèmia de Ciències Mèdiques (1995).
The team also has broad experience in the study of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, with a series of 150 patients that is one of the largest in the country, given the low prevalence of this condition. In addition, our center is considered a national referral hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of this pathology. Within the research into occupational disease due to asbestos exposure, our research laboratory is the only one in Spain that carries out determinations of asbestos bodies in the lung.
IP: Fco. Javier Muñoz Gall
IP: Ibai Los Arcos Bertiz Collaborators: M Teresa Martin Gomez, Yolanda Villena Ortiz, Javier Gomis Rodriguez, Joan Gavaldà Santapau, Judith Sacanell Lacasa, Marta Zapata Ortega, Leire Sanchez Corujo Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III Funding: 37500 Reference: PI23/01467 Duration: 01/01/2024 - 31/12/2026
IP: Mª Jesús Cruz Carmona Collaborators: David Espejo Castellanos, Miriam Izquierdo Sans Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III Funding: 65000 Reference: CM23/00174 Duration: 18/03/2024 - 17/03/2026
IP: Mª Jesús Cruz Carmona Collaborators: MicroRNA expression profiles in asthmatic patients with different disease phenotypes exposed to pollutants. Funding agency: Instituto de Salud Carlos III Funding: 89900 Reference: FI22/00262 Duration: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2027
IP: Eva Polverino Collaborators: Monica Kruger Funding agency: EUROPEAN COMMISSION Funding: 21875 Reference: ECRAID-H2020-SC1-BHC-35-2020 Duration: 01/03/2021 - 28/02/2026
PhD student: Eva Maria Revilla Lopez, Eva Maria Revilla Lopez Director/s: Berta Saez Gimenez, Susana Gómez Olles University: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2023
PhD student: Irene Belmonte Mula Director/s: Marc Miravitlles Fernández, Francisco Rodríguez Frias University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2017
PhD student: Daniel Álvarez Simón Director/s: Fco. Javier Muñoz Gall, Mª Jesús Cruz Carmona University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2017
PhD student: Gerard Muñoz Castro Director/s: Javier de Gracia Roldán University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2017
PhD student: Maria Alejandra Méndez Garrido Director/s: Antonio Román Broto, Victor Monforte Torres, Antonio Román Broto University: Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona Year: 2015
The grants, amounting to more than €533,000 for VHIR, will allow clinical duties to be partially released over three years to promote strategic research projects in obesity, respiratory diseases, aortic pathology and metabolic fatty liver disease.
Funding has been obtained for 43 projects under the calls for Health R&D&I Projects, Health Technology Development, and Independent Clinical Research
The new edition, led by Dr. Marc Miravitlles, updates treatment recommendations and integrates the consensus of the main medical societies involved in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
EXIMIOUS (Mapping Exposure-Induced Immune Effects: Connecting the Exposome and the Immunome), un projecte finançat per la Unió Europea que engloba 15 organitzacions de 7 països europeus.
EXIMIOUS té com a objectiu estudiar l’exposoma, és a dir, l’exposició a factors ambientals al llarg de la vida, per entendre la seva relació amb les malalties immunomediades, com ara les malalties autoimmunes o les al·lèrgies. Des del VHIR està liderat per la Dra. M Jesús Cruz i el seu equip de Pneumologia.
