During the first 2 years and 10 months of my ACI fellowship, I developed new nanoparticle analysis methods, including new nanoscale flow cytometric techniques and reagents, to study individual EV particles and the cargo contained in specific subsets of these packets. My work on this project resulted in three submitted manuscripts, four additional manuscripts in preparation, invitations to participate two international studies (an NIH Common Fund U01 project, and the European Union METVES-II Project), and a provisional patent application in process for Single molecule detection with nanoFACS. With these methods, my lab is now characterizing the profiles and functions of EVs from tumor cells (mesothelioma, breast, colorectal, pancreas, and GBM), immune cells (dendritic cell), and viruses (HIV, Ebola-like virus). To address two major unmet scientific needs in the field and to build upon the unique resources and scientific community that we have at NIH, I created two international working groups: 1) the EV Flow Cytometry Working Group, to develop standards and protocols with ISAC, ISEV, and ISTH, and 2) the Nano-EEVO Working Group (with NCI's Nano-WG, NIH Common Fund ERCC Program, NIST, EPA, and ISEV) to integrate synthetic nanomaterial informatics infrastructure with biological nanoparticle informatics resources. Both Working Groups are currently working with me to write and publish position papers and guidelines for the scientific community. These position papers not only will share guidelines developed in my lab, but also will provide a basis for bringing together previously separate communities of researchers (ranging from synthetic nanomaterials experts to metrologists developing clinical laboratory standards) in order to provide a cohesive infrastructure to support work in our individual labs and to apply the expertise from these disparate fields toward the common goal of applying this knowledge to translational clinical studies.
