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.
With this study we want to study the natural history of this syndrome mediated by anti-synthetase antibodies, the characterization of new antibodies that may be used as markers for lung involvement, as well as we aim at understanding better the etiopathogenicity and the treatment of this organic illness in patients with myositis.
IP: Albert Selva O'Callaghan
We are currently enrolled in this worldwide study to detect global genetic alterations in patients with myositis. Twenty centres from Europe and United States participate in this study. We contribute to add the genetic information of the patients from our population. Professor Frederick W. Miller (Bethesda, USA) and Dr. Ingrid Lundberg (Stockholm, Sweden) lead the project.
This study aims at detecting the prevalence of specific IgE in polisensitized patients towards pollen in Barcelona by means of the "component resolved diagnosis" technique from ISAC® (IgE specific microarray).
IP: Victòria Cardona Dahl
The presence of the recently discovered retrovirus XMRV ("xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus") is being currently studied in our lab in patients with SLE. This virus has been detected in blood samples of patients suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Interestingly, many patients with lupus also suffer from CFS. Based on these facts, with this project we establish as a hypothesis the possibility of finding XMRV DNA and RNA sequences in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from SLE patients, especially in those with CFS. We are nowadays setting up the already described XMRV-specific PCR and RT-PCR assays. We will also study the immunologic response of these patients against particular XMRV proteins.
IP: Eva Balada Prades
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.
