由于能够被有效分离和纯化，以及具有重要的生物学功能（例如细胞间信息传递）、且可用作药物载体，微纳米尺度的细胞外囊泡是近年来国际上的一个研究前沿和热点。由于相似的形态和大小，微纳米尺度的细胞表面囊泡通常被默认为细胞外囊泡释放前的前体物，更因缺乏分离和纯化细胞表面囊泡的方法和技术，目前对细胞表面囊泡的结构和功能知之甚少，也不受研究者的关注和重视。而我们的近期研究表明，细胞表面囊泡是一种新型未知囊泡，并非细胞外囊泡的前体物。在前期预实验中，我们已发现一种巧妙方法可分离和纯化细胞表面囊泡。本项目拟进一步完善这个分离方法，再通过脂质组学和蛋白组学的相关技术，对分离纯化的细胞表面囊泡进行分子组分分析，在此基础上对细胞表面囊泡的结构或功能进行预测，并进行初步的细胞实验验证。本项目有助于开启细胞生物学领域一个全新的研究方向（即细胞表面囊泡），吸引更多对细胞表面囊泡的关注和重视。

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have recently been in the spotlight due to easy isolation and purification, multiple physiological functions including intercellular communication, and usage as drug delivery systems. Cell-bound membrane vesicles are generally regarded as the precursor of extracellular vesicles in previous literature due to similar shape and size. Moreover, due to lack of an isolation/purification method, cell-bound membrane vesicles are poorly understood and neglected by researchers. Our recently reported study shows that cell-bound membrane vesicles are a novel type of vesicles but not the precursor of extracellular vesicles. Moreover, we recently found a simple method for the isolation and purification of cell-bound membrane vesicles. This project seeks to promote this method, characterize the molecular components of cell-bound membrane vesicles via the techniques of lipidomics and proteomics, and then predict and test the structure or functions of cell-bound membrane vesicles. This project helps to initiating a new research field in cell biology and attracting more attention.