Registration and more information:  ASIC Annual Meeting When: October 17 – 19, 2024 Where: Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center Abstracts are due August 30, 2024 Registration deadline: September 25, 2024 The ASIC Annual Meeting is an intellectual “home” and support network for new and seasoned investigators, students, and postdocs. Over three days you’ll exchange ideas on emerging questions and cutting-edge developments in non-EV research including: Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) Extracellular Particles (EPs) Particulate carriers of extracellular RNA (exRNA) as biologic ..read more

This blog is a repost of the NIH Directors’ blog from April 4th, 2023. Figure Credit: XVIVO Scientific Animation, Wethersfield, CT With just a blood sample from a patient, a promising technology has the potential to accurately diagnose non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most-common form of the disease, more than 90 percent of the time. The same technology can even predict from the same blood sample whether a patient will respond well to a targeted immunotherapy treatment. This work is a good example of research supported by the NIH Common Fund. Many Common Fund programs suppor ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from the International Communications Office at Nagoya University. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have used a new device to identify a key membrane protein in urine that indicates whether the patient has a brain tumor. Their protein could be used to detect brain cancer, avoiding the need for invasive tests, and increasing the likelihood of tumors being detected early enough for surgery. This research could also have potential implications for detecting other types of cancer. The research w ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from Hokkaido University. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. Researchers from Hokkaido University and Toppan have developed a method to detect build-up of amyloid β in the brain, a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, from biomarkers in blood samples. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease, characterised by a gradual loss of neurons and synapses in the brain. One of the primary causes of Alzheimer’s disease is the accumulation of amyloid β (Aβ) in the brain, where it forms plaques. Alzheimer’s disease is mostly seen in i ..read more

Cells can communicate with one another to coordinate essential processes such as development, growth, and repair through the release of signaling intermediates. One class of signaling intermediates are extracellular vesicles (EVs) that contain nucleic acids and proteins that mediate cell-cell communication. In cancer, the cargo of these EVs is altered in order to promote tumor progression, improving the ability to proliferate, invade, metastasize, and develop drug resistance, among other cancer characteristics. While most EVs range in diameter from 50 nanometers to one micron, there has been a ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from Nagoya University. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have developed a new chemical-only process that may represent an important breakthrough in creating customized mRNA vaccines for a variety of diseases and allow for the inexpensive preparation of mRNA in large quantities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines were successfully used to boost immunity. These vaccines teach cells how to make a protein that triggers the body’s immune response, allowing its natural defenses to recogni ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. It may be possible to identify the presence of an aggressive brain tumor in children by studying their cerebrospinal fluid, according to new research led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators. Comparing cerebrospinal fluid samples from 40 patients with medulloblastoma — the most common malignant brain tumor in children, accounting for 10% to 15% of pediatric central nervous system tumors — and from 11 healthy children without the disease, inv ..read more

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small membrane-bound particles that are loaded with various proteins, RNA, DNA, and lipids, and secreted by cells. Interest in these vesicles has grown in recent years with mounting evidence that EVs act as intercellular communication systems, transferring their selected cargo to other cells to confer specific effects on target cell biology. However, the processes that direct specific RNAs and proteins into these specialized vesicles remain largely unknown. In the April 25th, 2022 edition of Developmental Cell, Alissa Weaver, M.D., Ph.D. and her research team a ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research SYNAPSY. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. A research team from Synapsy has shown that the severity of the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia is strongly linked to blood biomarkers related to the deregulation of neuronal mitochondria. Psychotic symptoms are a characteristic clinical manifestation of schizophrenia. They go hand-in-hand with an increase in oxidative stress, which results in damage to a particular type of neurons called parvalbumin neurons. This deterioration lead ..read more

This blog originated as a press release from the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. Thanks to them for allowing us to repost it here. Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new and potentially more effective way to deliver messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells. Their approach involves packing mRNA inside nanoparticles that mimic the flu virus –– a naturally efficient vehicle for delivering genetic material such as RNA into cells. The new mRNA delivery nanoparticles are described in a paper published recently in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Editio ..read more