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 Systemic Diseases group performs translational research based on at least 300 patients with systemic lupus erytomatosus (SLE), antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), systemic sclerosis, vasculitis, dermatomyitis, Sjörgen syndrome or autoinflammatory syndromes in order to better understand their pathogenesis (both at the immunological and genetic regulation level), study their clinical and biological expression (through the detection of new markers that help characterize each of the autoimmune diseases), study morbimortality (through epidemiological studies) and analyse patients' response to medications. With these goals in mind, we seek to improve the diagnosis, clinical monitoring, and prognosis of our patients.
DNA is hypomethylated in T cells from SLE patients. It may lead to an increase in the expression of some genes that are usually silenced and, consequently, autoimmune phenomena may develop. On the other hand, this "unprotected" DNA could be the responsible for triggering anti-DNA antibodies. To find out the reason why this DNA hypomethylation is taking place, we have evaluated the expression level of different DNA methylases and demethylases. We have observed that two demethylases (MBD2 and MBD4) are overexpressed in T CD4+ lymphocytes of patients with SLE. We are now studying the effect the overexpression of these proteins may have in the expression regulation of different molecules involved in the immunologic response.
IP: Eva Balada Prades
Antibodies against HERVs have been detected in patients suffering from some autoimmune diseases such as SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, and multiple sclerosis. We mainly focus our research on trying to detect these antibodies in our patients affected with SLE. We have recently cloned some recombinant proteins specific for HERVs. We are simultaneously evaluating the transcription levels of several HERV proteins in T CD4+ lymphocytes from SLE patients.
With this project we aim at studying the status of the IFN-gamma/STAT and the TGF-beta/Smad intracellular signal pathways in cutaneous biopsies of patients with lupus. We are now analyzing the expression of several molecules involved in these pathways to be able both to discern the main differences among the different types of cutaneous lupus and to interpret the residual fibrotic lesions observed in discoid lupus.
IP: José Ordi Ros
A Vall d’Hebron team demonstrates, for the first time, the potential of optical genome mapping to detect genetic alterations associated with this rare disease that are not identified using conventional methods.
The study describes the first documented case worldwide of hereditary angioedema transmission through assisted reproduction.
15 researchers from the Rheumatology, Systemic Diseases and the Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Digestive Tract groups gave around 25 presentations.
