Dr. Miquel Vila, head of the http://en.vhir.org/portal1/grup-presentacio.asp?s=recerca&contentid=186911&idrefer=186912 Neurodegenerative Diseases research group at VHIR and Dr. Josep Villena, from the research group on http://en.vhir.org/portal1/grup-presentacio.asp?s=recerca&contentid=186788&idrefer=186789 Diabetes and Metabolism, have received this afternoon the awards given by "La Caixa" Banking Foundation for research projects on biomedicine and health in the first open and competitive call for biomedical research organized by the entity.In this call, 785 projects from various research centers, hospitals and universities from all of Spain and Portugal have been presented, of which only 77 passed to the final phase after overcoming a competitive selection process. Once valued by the committee made up of 256 internationally renowned experts, 20 projects considered key for biomedical research in Spain and Portugal were selected. The objective of this program is to promote projects of excellence on the fight against diseases with a major impact on world's population, such as cardiovascular, neurological, infectious and oncological diseases.The project led by Dr. Vila is called "How can we cure Parkinson's disease?" and aims to design laboratory mice that produce neuromelanin, as a human brain would and use them in order to find new therapies that keep or slow the accumulation of neuromelanin to prevent the disease.Researchers have seen that there is a selective degeneration of neurons, specifically those that accumulate a dark pigment that dyes them, called neuromelanin, similar to the one produced by the skin tanned in the sun. The accumulation of neuromelanin over a pathological threshold compromises the neuronal function and triggers the disease. However, this pigment has been largely ignored by the investigation, since it does not exist in the animal experimental model: the brain of the mice used to study the disease does not produce this pigment, which could be key when it comes to understanding the neurodegeneration of Parkinson's disease.The other research project entitled "Can metabolic changes in the heart lead to new regenerative therapies?" is jointly led by Dr. Villena and Dr. Ofelia Martínez-Estrada of the University of Barcelona, and also has the participation of the team led by Dr. Carolina Soler of the Germans Trias i Pujol Institute. The main goal of the project is to define the metabolic changes that take place in the epicardium during the formation of the heart and determine its relevance in the correct formation of this organ, as well as in its repair after an infarct.