21ENGBIO PROJECT ECHO: Modular exosome prototyping & engineering

我们的细胞产生并分泌纳米级的细胞外囊泡，称为外泌体-这基本上是细胞相互发送的分子信息。这些外泌体由许多不同的分子组分组成，包括蛋白质和其他分子，它们被包裹在脂质（脂肪）双层中。外泌体在体内有许多不同的作用，可以帮助我们保持健康。正在进行的研究还表明，外泌体可能被用作治疗包括癌症在内的疾病的疗法。不幸的是，外泌体是高度复杂的，并且工程化实验室生长的细胞以制造新型治疗性外泌体通常具有挑战性。为了帮助解决这些挑战，我们将开发新的无细胞方法来在细胞外工程化外泌体-可能使开发新的治疗性外泌体更快，更容易。这些无细胞方法还将与液体处理机器人技术相结合，这样我们就可以更容易地并行设计大量不同的外泌体。如果成功，我们设想我们的项目可以使我们能够与制药公司合作，加速这一有前途的新治疗类别。

Our cells produce and secrete nanosized extracellular vesicles, called exosomes - which are essentially molecular messages that cells send to each other. These exosomes are composed of many different molecular components, including proteins and other molecules, that are encased in a lipid (fat) bilayer. Exosomes have many different roles in the body and can help keep us healthy. Ongoing research has also shown that exosomes could potentially be used as therapies to treat diseases including cancers. Unfortunately, exosomes, are highly complex and it is often challenging to engineer lab grown cells to make new types of therapeutic exosomes. To help address these challenges we will develop new cell-free methods for engineering exosomes outside of the cell - potentially making it quicker and easier to develop new therapeutic exosomes. These cell-free methods will also be combined with liquid handling robotics so that we can more easily engineer lots of different exosomes in parallel. If successful, we envision that our project could enable us to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to accelerate this promising new therapeutic class.