The demonstration that extracellular vesicles (EVs), carrying RNA, DNA, proteins, lipids and metabolites, play important roles in maintaining human health as well as contribute to driving disease has opened up a whole new field of research. Therefore, EVs have tremendous biologic significance and clinical potential, making a meeting focused on this area of research both highly timely and highly significant. The 3rd Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and 2nd Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) entitled ?Extracellular Vesicles: Understanding Extracellular Vesicle Biogenesis and Composition for Detection and Treatment of Diseases to be held July 26th ? 31st, 2020, at the Grand Summit Hotel at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, will bring together a very diverse array of senior and early career investigators in both basic and clinical fields. There will be an emphasis on promoting interactions between participants to facilitate the development of collaborative and translational research. GRCs are one of only a few types of meetings that facilitate these important interactions between senior and junior investigators. This GRC will be led off with keynote presentations by David Lyden and Clotilde Thery on role of tumor EVs in cancer progression and basic biology of EVs respectively followed by sessions covering: 1) Biogenesis, composition and characterization of EVs; 2) Novel approaches for detection and analysis of EVs; 3) Role of EVs in driving disease pathologies; 4) EVs as delivery vehicles for drugs and RNA; 5) Novel therapeutic applications of EVs; 6) EVs in host-pathogen interactions; 7) Stem cell EVs for regenerative medicine; and 8) Current clinical trials with EVs. General issues to be focused on will be EV heterogeneity, isolation and quantification strategies, trafficking of EVs, the role of EVs in disease and therapeutic efficacy of EVs, both pre- clinically and clinically. Up to sixteen open speaker slots have been reserved for early career investigators who will be selected from submitted abstracts. There also will be GRC Power Hour, designed to address challenges women and other minorities face in science and issues of diversity and inclusion. In this proposal, we seek to obtain funding to support registration fees and travel of junior investigators for both the GRC and GRS. Overall, the GRC and GRS on EVs promise to be a very diverse and exciting conferences, which should lead to important collaborations that move the field forward both as to basic studies and clinical applications.
Both the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) and Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) entitled ?Extracellular Vesicles: Understanding Extracellular Vesicle Biogenesis and Composition for Detection and Treatment of Diseases' will bring together a rapidly growing and diverse group of basic and clinical junior and senior investigators to address the biogenesis of extracellular vesicles (EVs), their role of vesicle transfer of RNA, DNA, proteins, lipids and metabolites in basic cell systems and their therapeutic potential. The research presented and discussed at the GRC and GRS likely will contribute to the development of new extracellular vesicle-based treatments for a wide spectrum of diseases including cancer and chronic heart, lung and brain diseases and possibly even aging.
