FMSG: Bio: Advancing Scalable Production and Quantification of Extracellular Vesicles

About This Grant

Cells release small particles called extracellular vesicles (EVs) to communicate with each other. Such EVs may be useful for drug delivery and for treating diseases. At present, it is difficult to manufacture high-quality EVs consistently. EVs produced in bioreactors vary greatly in size and composition. In medical applications, this variability makes it difficult to apply consistent EV dosages. This project will develop new biomanufacturing methods to manufacture EVs accurately, consistently, and in large quantities. This project will benefit society by making EVs a more reliable tool for disease treatment. Further benefit will result from training students in research, course development in biomanufacturing techniques, and outreach to pre-college students. This project aims to solve two key problems related to EVs: scalable production and consistent characterization. To achieve this, a combined approach that integrates flow filtration and size focusing will be adopted. This research will utilize multiple complementary techniques to analyze EVs and establish critical links between key characteristics, such as EV concentration and protein content. These insights will enable the development of more precise and standardized dosing strategies for future medical applications. In addition, the biological effects of the optimized EVs will be elucidated using drug-resistant breast cancer cells as model systems. These functional tests will validate the effectiveness of our production process, and also confirm that the improved dosing strategy enhances therapeutic reliability. By addressing key bottlenecks in EV production and analysis, this project will significantly improve the ability to produce and measure EVs in a scalable and consistent way and advance the use of EVs in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Beyond scientific advancements, this project will also support education and workforce development in biotechnology and biomanufacturing through training graduate and undergraduate students in a collaborative, cross-disciplinary research environment. It will also engage younger students in STEM through mentoring science fair projects and developing a new interdisciplinary course on biomanufacturing to prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers. This Future Manufacturing award is co-funded by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and the Directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences’ Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SBE/SMA). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.