Speaker:
Sander Kooijmans, PhD: CDL Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands
About the talk:
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are endogenous transport vehicles of cellular cargoes, including various RNA species and proteins. Due to their favorable safety profile and naturally evolved delivery capacity, EVs have been heralded as next-generation delivery vehicles for biotherapeutics such as proteins, RNAs or combinations thereof (e.g. CRISPR/Cas9 components). However, in order to exploit this therapeutic potential, EV engineering is required. Therapeutic cargo of interest should preferably be loaded into the EV lumen where it is protected from degradation, and depending on the application, the EV surface may be engineered as well. EV surface modification could involve the incorporation of targeting moieties to enhance EV interaction with specific cell types, or the inclusion of molecules to evade the immune system and increase circulation time.
In my talk, I will discuss these aspects of EV engineering based on my previous studies and will provide a perspective on the current challenges and future directions in EV engineering.