Talk abstracts
Talk on Tuesday 10:55-11:15am submitted by Natalia Higuita-Castro
Engineered Extracellular Vesicles for Therapeutic Applications
Natalia Higuita-Castro (Biomedical Engineering & Neurosurgery)
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, nanoscale technologies have emerged as a promising tool to enable groundbreaking biomedical research and translational applications. This seminar will focus on discussing the use of nanotechnology-enabled strategies to develop novel nanocarriers based on engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) to target cell populations in the lung, brain, and intervertebral disc (IVD). EVs are cell-derived carriers that share molecular cues with their donor cell and play a crucial role in cell signaling under healthy and pathological conditions. The implementation of engineered EVs as next-generation non-viral nanocarriers for gene and drug delivery helps to circumvent major practical and translational barriers inherent to other delivery methodologies, such as capsid size and redosing restrictions for viral vectors. Moreover, EVs possess an innate ability to penetrate biological barriers, have low immunogenicity, and higher stability in biofluids compared to synthetic carriers. Our data highlights the potential of engineered EVs to drive direct reprogramming processes of somatic cells towards induced endothelial or neuronal tissue, as well as their ability to reduce inflammation and facilitate tissue repair/regeneration.
Keywords: EV-based nanocarriers, non-viral gene delivery