We are working on extracellular vesicle-based biomarker discovery. One important step is to isolate them efficiently and selectively. EVtrap, which is based on magnetic bead-based separation, can really help us by providing high throughput, easy to use, in particular, easy for clinical applications.
We have been using this protocol for discovery in proteins and the phosphoprotein biomarkers for different diseases such as breast cancer, kidney cancers, and Parkinson's Disease. This biomarker is derived from biofluid. EVs can potentially be used for liquid biopsies, which can further improve clinical diagnosis and the treatment.
Currently, the most commonly used approach for extracellular vesicle isolation are ultracentrifugation and precipitation, but those methods are limited to co-isolation of contaminants and also low efficiency. So our EVtrap method will provide a more effective way for isolating EVs, which will allow for a more reproducible and sensitive method and also will benefit downstream analysis. We are working on two things.
First, we are continue developing the methods and protocols for EV isolation and a downstream analysis, in particular, a mass backup-based analysis. Second one is we are exploring different application in clinical field because of the advantage by the EVtrap.
