Between June 22 and 23, NOVA Medical School hosted 140 national and international researchers at the 2nd PNEV meeting - National Network of Extracellular Vesicles - to discuss their work in this scientific field.
During the meeting, the latest advances in this area were discussed, specifically in its interface with cancer, infection and immunity, tissue regeneration, and degeneration, neurobiology, and metabolic diseases.
The program featured presentations from several renowned researchers in this field, including Carmen Fernandez-Becerra (Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol) e Juan Falcón (CIC bioGUNE), as well as Graça Raposo and Bruno Costa Silva, from Institut Curie and Champalimaud Foundation respectively, who delivered the two keynote sessions.
For Rune Matthiesen, principal investigator at NMS and one of the organizers of this meeting, this conference "holds greater significance as it was a joint meeting between the PNEV and the EVCA twining project, bringing together researchers and students in the field of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in health and disease". Paulo Pereira, equally principal investigator at NMS and organizer of this meeting, explains that “synergies are the way to go have a great impact in any field. EVCA joining efforts with PNEV to organize this meeting had a great impact in the community, what can be confirmed by the great attendance of 140 people.”
The european project Twinning EVCA - Center of Excellence in Diagnosis and Advanced Therapeutics based on Extracellular Vesicles (EVs), led by NMS, aims to promote and strengthen research in diagnostic and advanced therapies based on EVs. The EVCA project, led by NMS researchers Rune Matthiesen and Paulo Pereira, is being developed in partnership with Institut Curie, in France, and the Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CICbioGUNE), in Spain. According to Judite Costa, project manager of this project, "the 2nd PNEV Meeting, co-organized by EVCA, fulfilled the objectives we set to promote knowledge transfer in this field and increase the international visibility of NMS and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Moreover, it was truly inspiring to see the auditorium completely full with an interested and vibrant community."
The organization of this meeting was shared between NOVA Medical School and the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of NOVA University Lisbon (NOVA FCT).
Details of the event and full programme here.