1. VES4US
Extracellular vesicles from a natural source for tailor-made nanomaterials

2. VES4US - Index Objective State of the art Impacts Limitations
Solutions
Results
Workpackages
Consortium

3. VES4US project in a click
VES4US Extracellular vesicles from a natural source for tailor- made nanomaterials Starting: 1/09/2018 End: 31/08/2021 EC Contribution: 2,946,303.75€ 6 partners 6 countries

4. VES4US - Objective
The aim of Ves4us is to develop a new platform for the efficient production and functionalisation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from a renewable natural-source, which will enable for their exploitation as tailor-made products in the fields of nanomedicine, cosmetics and nutraceutics.

5. VES4US – State of the art INNOVATION:
VES4US aims at creating a fundamentally new bioprocessing approach to generate and functionalise EVs from a renewable biological source using state-of-the-art technologies that have emerged in recent years as potent signal transducers, and cell-cell communicators.
EVs will be loaded with specific cargoes directly in isolated EVs or by the modulation of producer cells. Membrane engineering for targeting purposes is expected to allow generating vesicle carriers with unprecedented abilities for delivery in specific tissues such as, brain, lung, skin, dendritic or tumour cells.

6. VES4US – State of the art WHAT ARE EXTRACELLURAL VESICLES?
Extracellular Vesicles = cell-derived, membranous particles acting as natural biocarriers of functional small molecules for cell-to-cell communication

7. VES4US- Impacts Scientific Socioeconomic
• EV features: 1) Are well tolerated in the body, 2) Have long circulating half-life, 3) Are internalized by other cells, 4) Carry small molecules and cargoes, 5) Are able to cross the BBB
• EVs as natural biocarriers of functional small molecules have raised great interest (cell-free therapy?)
Socioeconomic
Potential EV application in the sectors of biotechnology, pharmaceutics, cosmetics, and the food industry, assessing also their clinical application possibilities, both diagnostic and therapeutic.

8. Problematics addressed
VES4US – Limitations
Problematics addressed
1) Pharmaceutical acceptability, economically viable and sustainable natural source of EVs
2) Replace the established time - and labour-intensive EV isolation procedures
3) Physic-chemical features of EVs to build a knowledge-base for research and industrial applications
4) Generating carriers with abilities for delivery in specific cells or tissues
5) EVs bioactivity

9. VES4US - Solutions Methods and means used
1) A sustainable, renewable and innovative natural source will be used to isolate EVs, (no milk-derived or bacterial-derived EVs)
2) Set-up and optimization of a novel reproducible and scalable retrieval of Evs
3) Conventional chemical-biophysical methods and innovative tools based on microfluidic technology
4) New methods for the engineering of EVs membrane will be optimised based on recently developed strategies applied on EVs and currently applied by partner
5) The biological activity, uptake and toxicology of EVs will be characterised using a series of established and novel in vitro and in vivo assays

10. VES4US - Workpackages

11. VES4US - Consortium Partners Expertise
CNR-(IBIM, IBBR, IBF, IEOS, IGB) (Coord) (IT)
ITSligo (IE)
ETHZ (CH)
UL (SI)
MPG (DE)
ZABALA (ES)
Expertise
Cell and molecular biology
Ecology and Biotech
Biochemical Engineering
Biophysics
Colloid and Biophysical Chemistry
Innovation Consulting

12. VES4US - Results EXPECTED RESULTS
Technology for high-throughput isolation of natural-source derived Evs Definite Evs tailor-made nanodevices Provide a new european perspective on frontier biotechnology Give training and career development in high quality knowledge-based biotechnology

13. This is a VES4US presentation

14. Thank you Find us in: ves4us.eu @ves4us