Miquel Vila received a medical degree from the University of Barcelona Medical School (Spain) and then moved to the laboratory INSERM U289 (Prof. Y. Agid) at the Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris, France), where he obtained a Master degree (DEA) & PhD in Neuroscience from the Sorbonne University-Pierre & Marie Curie Campus, under the supervision of Dr. E.C. Hirsch. From 1998 to 2001 he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the laboratory of Dr. S. Przedborski at the Dept of Neurology at Columbia University (New York, USA). In 2001, he obtained a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Neurology at Columbia University and the permanent residency of the USA. In 2005, he moved back to Barcelona as an ICREA Professor to develop a new research group on neurodegeneration at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute. The group is part of the Spanish Excellence Center for Networked Biomedical Research on Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED) and of the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP).
Research interests
Our research is geared toward elucidating the molecular mechanisms of neuron cell death occurring in Parkinson's disease, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's dementia, in order to: (i) identify biomarkers for the diagnosis, early detection, patient stratification, disease progression, prognosis or response to treatment, (ii) identify new molecular targets for potential therapeutic intervention, (iii) develop novel therapeutic strategies with disease-modifying potential for this currently incurable disease, (iv) unravel molecular pathways common to other neurodegenerative diseases.
Selected publications
- Blasco-Agell, L et al. 2025, 'LRRK2-mutant microglia and neuromelanin synergize to drive dopaminergic neurodegeneration in an iPSC-based Parkinson's disease model', Communications biology, 8 - 1 -1203.
- Pérot JB, Ruze A, Gaurav R, Rebbah S, Cadin C, Le Troter A, Soustelle L, Mouton L, Valabrègue R, Parent A, Mangone G, Lejeune FX, Arnulf I, Corvol JC, Vidailhet M, Santin MD, Vila M & Lehéricy S 2025, 'Longitudinal neuromelanin changes in prodromal and early Parkinson's disease in humans and rat model', Brain communications, 7 - 3 - fcaf204.
- Kinet, R et al. 2025, 'Differential pathological dynamics triggered by distinct Parkinson patient-derived α-synuclein extracts in nonhuman primates', Science advances, 11 - 25 - eadu6050.
- Sirerol-Piquer MS, Perez-Villalba A, Duart-Abadia P, Belenguer G, Gómez-Pinedo U, Blasco-Chamarro L, Carrillo-Barberà P, Pérez-Cañamás A, Navarro-Garrido V, Dehay B, Vila M, Vitorica J, Pérez-Sánchez F & Fariñas I 2025, 'Age-dependent progression from clearance to vulnerability in the early response of periventricular microglia to α-synuclein toxic species', Molecular neurodegeneration, 20 - 1 - 26.
- Filimontseva A, Cuadros T, Chatterton Z, Burke A, Mahabadian AA, Compte J, Fu YH, Vila M & Halliday GM 2025, 'Standardised TruAI Automated Quantification of Intracellular Neuromelanin Granules in Human Brain Tissue Sections', Neuropathology and applied neurobiology, 51 - 4 - e70033.
- Kinet, R et al. 2025, 'Phenotypic characterization of an Atp13a2 knockout rat model of Parkinson's disease', Npj parkinsons disease, 11 - 1 - 321.
- Filimontseva A, Fu YH, Vila M & Halliday GM 2025, 'Neuromelanin and selective neuronal vulnerability to Parkinson's disease', Trends in neurosciences, 48 - 6 - 445 - 459.