Dr. Vila is an independent researcher at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology of Rosario-IBR, National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET), and an associate professor of biophysics at the University of Rosario, where he received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1990. He did postdoctoral work in structural biology at the NMR Center of the University of Florence (Italy). He was a visiting scientist at the University of Valencia (Spain), Caltech, and at SISSA (Italy). He is currently the head of the first biomolecular NMR facility in Argentina. His research has been funded by several institutions such as the Antorchas Foundation, CONICET, Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT), Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a member of the editorial board of several journals. Honors include the Eduardo de Robertis Award, the Ernesto Galloni Award in Biophysics, the Ranwell Caputto Award, and the R. Labriola Award in Chemistry.

Dr. Vila's research focuses on the structural determinants of function of metalloproteins by exploiting several biophysical techniques, mainly NMR. His lab is currently working on zinc-dependent beta-lactamases and their role in bacterial resistance to antibiotics and on electron transfer copper proteins.