Topic: Extracellular vesicles for therapeutic and diagnostic applications
Time: June 20th (Monday) at 10:00 AM
Location: Tencent Conference Room 507-659-578
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Joy Wolfram
Inviter: Prof. Jianliang Shen
Abstract: Extracellular vesicles are naturally occurring nanoparticles that are released by all cells and serve important roles in physiological and pathological processes. Therefore, extracellular vesicles have promising applications as therapeutic agents, drug targets, delivery vehicles, and biomarkers. Although the medical use of extracellular vesicles is promising, clinical translation has been hindered due to inefficient, unreliable, and non-scalable methods of isolation, for example, ultracentrifugation. To overcome these issues, my lab has developed improved techniques for isolation of extracellular vesicles, such as robust and scalable tangential flow filtration. These methods have opened up many opportunities for diagnostic and therapeutic uses of extracellular vesicles, two of which will be highlighted in this talk: i) lipoaspirate-derived extracellular vesicles for treating inflammatory conditions and ii) understanding the role and application of the extracellular vesicle glycome in metastatic disease.
Bio: Associate Professor Joy Wolfram leads a nanomedicine and extracellular vesicle research laboratory with the goal of developing innovative approaches that bring the next generation of treatments and diagnostics directly to the clinic. She has joint appointments in the School of Chemical Engineering and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland. She has authored over 70 publications on nanoscale strategies for cancer and inflammatory diseases and received more than 30 international awards. She is actively involved in community outreach and scientific education, and as a TED speaker she strives to bring science to a wider audience.
