ESR10 – EVs as drug delivery system

Host institution: University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Host department: Nanomedicine Laboratory
Supervisor: Prof. dr. Raymond Schiffelers

Project description
In this project, we examine extracellular vesicles as a drug delivery system for biological therapeutics such as mRNA, siRNA, proteins and peptides. We hypothesize that extracellular vesicles have built in mechanisms for efficient uptake and functional intracellular delivery of cargo. To examine this, we investigate loading of vesicles with the cargo of interest and isolation of subpopulations that are most efficient in delivery. We examine cellular uptake routes and compare this to synthetic lipid nanoparticles with the objective to identify the critical factors that are responsible for extracellular vesicle activity. These synthetic lipid nanoparticles can also serve as standards in other projects within the consortium where controlled composition is of essence. Ultimately, we aim to study the activity of extracellular vesicles, hybrid systems and synthetic vesicles in increasingly complex systems of cell culture with multiple cell types and in vivo.

Website
Nanomedicine Laboratory: www.Nanomedicinelab.eu

Contact details
For more information, please contact:
Prof. dr. Raymond Schiffelers: r.schiffelers@umcutrecht.nl