Abstract

Single Vesicle Analysis to Understand Intercellular Communication

John Nolan, CEO, Cellarcus Biosciences, Inc.

Extracellular vesicles are released from cells carrying molecular cargo that can be transferred to other cells to affect their function. Understanding the diversity of EV released from cells is important for understanding their roles in basic biology and well as to develop EV-based biomarkers and therapeutics. A particular challenge in the field is methods to sensitively detect EVs and measure their cargo, as the small size and heterogeneity of EVs limit the usefulness of conventional biochemical analysis. Single vesicle analysis offers the possibility to understand the heterogeneity of EVs released from cells, and we have developed flow cytometry (FC)-based methods to detect and size EVs as small as ~75 nm and measure cargo to ~30 molecules per vesicle. We are using these tools to measure the number, size, and cargo of EVs released from cells and to study the roles of EVs in cell-cell communication.