On July 12^nd, we had the third session of our "PhD?! What's next?" Career Seminars, focusing on clinical research. This time, we were joined by Catarina Fonseca, Clinical Research Associate at IQVIA, dedicated to Roche Pharmaceuticals, and Sara Oliveira, Clinical Research Manager at MSD through IQVIA.

For the 4th expert Seminar, EVCA invited Dra. M. Helena Vasconcelos. Helena is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Porto (FFUP) and Leader of the “Cancer Drug Resistance” research group at Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto (i3S). Her research group conducts translational research focused on the identification and validation of biomarkers and therapeutic targets to overcome drug resistance in cancer and improve precision medicine. Helena’s group is interested in studying Extracellular Vesicles as a source of cancer biomarkers in liquid biopsies and their role in the intercellular communication between tumour cells and between those cells and the tumour microenvironment.

EVCA co-organized the 11^th edition of SINAL - SINAL 2024 which took place in Coimbra (Portugal) on the 24^th and 25^th of May. SINAL intended to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration between researchers focused on addressing issues related to cell biology and its profound implications for understanding and combating numerous human diseases. This event had a session dedicated to Extracellular Vesicles on May 25^th, with the participation of coordinators Rune Matthiesen and Paulo Pereira with the aim of promoting the EVCA project and NMS as a reference institution in the area of​​ EVs research.

Dr. Cláudio Pinheiro was the invited speaker of this session. Cláudio is a former MSc student of ToxOmics, NMS and subsequently obtained his PhD degree at the Ghent University, Belgium. In his PhD worked in the group of Professor An Hendrix, an expert in the field of Extracelular Vesicles. He is currently occupying a post-doc position in the same group where they have designed the extracellular vesicle quality control (EVQC) study with the aim to systematically compare the performance of 14 frequently implemented separation methods. These methods are implemented to separate EV from blood, urine and cell culture supernatant spiked or not with recombinant EV (rEV). EV preparations are compared in terms of repeatability, sensitivity, accuracy, specificity and efficiency at protein, nucleic acid and structural level. The final goal is the development of a guiding tool for the informed selection of a separation method for particular study goals.

EVCA participated in the Arroios Health Fair 2024. The Health Fair is aimed at the entire population and has several events spread across the parish of Arroios. On the 18th, it took place at NOVA Medical School with games, quizzes and visits to the laboratories. Participants, in addition to participating in the EVCA stand, playing our games, and winning EVCA gifts, also visited the laboratory where NanoSight is located, the equipment that allows the characterization of Extracellular Vesicles.

EVCA organized an Expert Seminar with Dra. Catarina Roma-Rodrigues. She talked about "Gold nanoparticles to tackle cancer derived exosomes". Dra. Catarina Roma-Rodrigues is a Postdoc fellow at Unidade de Ciências Biomoleculares aplicadas in Nova School of Sciences and Technology. She completed her Ph.D. in Biotechnology at the Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, her MSc in Biotechnology (Biochemical Engineering) at the same university and her BSc in Biochemistry at the Universidade de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências. Her work is mainly focused on the role of exosomes in the modulation of the tumor microenvironment and in the biological effect of compounds with chemotherapeutic potential on tumor cells.

Several NMS and CIC bioGUNE R&I management EVCA members made a short-term visit (2 days) to our advanced partner Institut Curie. It was a great opportunity to exchange know-how in several different areas like Research Management, Innovation, Infrastructure Management and others. This visit aimed to identify the best practices and procedures to transfer to the respective institution.

EVCA Winter Retreat 2024 took place at Hotel do Mar, Sesimbra. In this event, it was presented the progress made by the members and EVCA team since the kickoff meeting. This event counted with the participation of Advisory Board members Tomás Dias from Mursla, Guillaume van Niel from the Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences and Henrique Girão from ICBR. Also, we counted with EVCA members from all the partners. It was two amazing days discussing and learning about EVs in a relaxed atmosphere and a beautiful view of the ocean.

In this webinar, Doctor Ronald Vale from the University of California, San Francisco talked about Democratizing Science Communication. Ron Vale is an outstanding and inspiring scientist, with major contributions to Life Sciences such as the discovery of the motor protein kinesin. Moreover, he also contributed to facilitating free access to science as well as improving scientific publishing in Life Sciences.

EVCA researchers from NOVA Medical School and CIC BioGUNE concluded a two-day workshop at Institut Curie, Paris. The event focused on teaching various topic related to EVS like state-of-the-art methodologies on EV platform, EVS in Cancer, VLP based therapeutics and Magnetic bioengineering of EVs .

Also, the participants had the opportunity to visit the Curie Museum and see the beautiful city of Paris.

This webinar was dedicated to exploring the protein arginine methylation in extracellular vesicles. It counted with multiple speakers. Dr. Thierry Dubois and 2 of his students, Sonia Ruggiero and Solène Huard, from Institut Curie talked about the role of protein arginine methylation in triple negative breast cancer. In the end, Dr. Rune Matthiesen from NOVA Medical School, addressed the protein arginine methylation in extracellular vesicles.

EVCA organized an Exploitation Team webinar where we invited Technology Transfer Manager Donatello Castellana, from CIC BioGUNE and Business Development Manager Yannick Campion from Institut Curie, to talk about Technology transfer. 

The first joint scientific meeting organized by the PhD and Pos-Doc committee of NOVA Medical School. Several ECVA Twinning members presented their work about EVs in different areas of Biomedical Research.

EVCA organized two webinar sessions about Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) Research. For the 1^st session, we had the Researchers Graça Raposo and Gisela D'Angelo from Institut Curie talking about state-of-the-art knowledge in Extracellular Vesicles Research towards new therapies for cancer. In the 2^nd Session, we had the Researcher Lorena Martin-Jaular also from Institut Curie talking about isolation and subtypes of EVs and function. 

EVCA participated in the European Researcher Night, and it was a great success. Our stand was visited by over 200 people, from students and teachers to families, it was fantastic to share knowledge about extracellular vesicles (EVs) and to have fun with them playing the games and winning prizes.

EVCA researchers from NOVA Medical School, CIC bioGUNE, and the Institut Curie, concluded a three-day practical workshop. The event focused on the application of omics technologies and provided a unique opportunity for participants to gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art webtools designed for interpreting data generated by omics technologies.

The second meeting of the Portuguese Network on Extracellular Vesicles (PNEV), aimed to bring together researchers and students working in Portugal in the field of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in Health and Disease. This year's  conference held even greater significance as it was a joint meeting between the PNEV and the EVCA (extracellular vesicles in clinical applications) twining project, bringing together researchers and students from Portugal in the field of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in health and disease.

EVCA Twinning Kickoff Meeting… Extracellular vesicles in Clinical Applications. What an amazing event!!!! It was so inspiring to see people coming together, discussing new ideas, what a great way to get things going… Already looking forward to the next event!

EVCA organized an Expert Seminar with Dr. Antonio Gonzalez-Sarrías from CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia, Spain. He talked about "Use of milk-derived exosomes as nanocarriers to enhance the tissue bioavailability and bioactivity of dietary polyphenols: The DairyPhenosome project". Dr. Antonio is a Tenured Scientist-CSIC at CEBAS-CSIC. The main line of research is based on the identification of plant foods polyphenols that could have a beneficial effect on health, particularly against colorectal and breast cancer, intestinal inflammation and cardiovascular diseases.