Discovering the Secrets of Extracellular Vesicles for Diagnostics and Therapeutics

Thursday, 4 April 2024 at 08:30

Add to Calendar ▼2024-04-04 08:30:002024-04-04 09:30:00Europe/LondonDiscovering the Secrets of Extracellular Vesicles for Diagnostics and TherapeuticsExtracellular Vesicles (EVs) and Nanoparticles 2024: Diagnostics, Delivery, Therapeutics in Miami, FloridaMiami, FloridaSELECTBIOenquiries@selectbiosciences.com

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), particularly exosomes, play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication by facilitating the exchange of biological information and materials. EVs are abundantly found in various clinical samples, including blood, urine, saliva, tears, and cerebrospinal fluid. Due to their cargo of diverse biomolecules such as proteins, peptides, lipids, and nucleic acids derived from parent cells, EVs hold great potential as valuable biomarkers for clinical diagnosis and prognosis. In this presentation, I will discuss our research findings on EV isolation techniques, biomarker discovery strategies, detection methods, and translational applications. Firstly, I will introduce the Exosome Total Isolation Chip (EXOTIC) device developed for isolating and identifying EVs from lung cancer patients. This platform enables modular separation and analysis of EV subtypes secreted by different cells along with their respective size distribution. Additionally, I will present the Exosome Detection via the Ultrafast-isolation System (EXODUS) for various applications including characterizing EVs in different biological samples and tracing tissue and cell functions based on urine samples. Next, I plan to introduce iTEARS, which is used to discover the secrets of tear EVs as biomarkers for detecting ocular disorders and systemic diseases. Furthermore, iNEBULA will be discussed for investigating the biological profiles of tear EV subsets with different sizes from healthy individuals and exploring the origins of EV proteins. Finally, I will present the gold nano-dual probe technique (nPES) for quantitative detection of individual plasma exosomes from patients with pancreatic cancer. Simultaneously, a robust acute pancreatitis identification and diagnosis (RAPIDx) method will be demonstrated through proteomic fingerprinting analysis of intact nanoscale EVs from clinical samples. The goal of our work on EVs is to support fundamental research, promote clinical diagnosis, and facilitate the translation of therapeutics.

Fei Liu, Faculty of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Fei Liu

Dr. Liu is an Investigator of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from KAIST (2012), followed by postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley, Houston Methodist Research Institute, and Stanford University until 2017. From 2017 to 2022, Dr. Liu served as a Professor at the Eye Hospital, School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, and School of Biomedical Engineering at Wenzhou Medical University. His research focuses on extracellular vesicle-based biomarker discovery, disease diagnostics, and clinical translation. Dr. Liu has published over 40 articles in journals including Nature Methods, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Advances, ACS Nano, and PNAS.