VES4US: Extracellular vesicles from a natural source for tailor-made nanomaterials

Introduction: VES4US is a new European project funded by the Horizon 2020-Future and Emerging Technology Open programme, which aims to develop an innovative platform for the efficient production of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from a renewable biosource, enabling their exploitation as tailor-made products in the fields of nanomedicine, cosmetics and nutraceutics (https://ves4us.eu). A core aspect of the project is to focus on an identified natural source to constitute a cost-effective and sustainable source of EVs. The project will run for the next three years with six organizations from six European countries. Methods: In the first phase, the focus will be the selection of the natural source and the optimization of culture condition at pre-industrial scale. Then, the isolation and physiochemical characterization of the EVs will be realized. In the second phase, the functionalization and load of the EVs will be approached. Finally, the biological activity of the EVs will be explored both in vitro and in vivo. Results: The selection of the best EV-producing natural source strain/s is ongoing and it will get to the production of the EVs needed to develop the natural nanocarriers. Before that happens, it exists the need of applying good research practices that include personnel training on Standard Operating Procedures to control major experimental activities for harvesting, manipulating, storing, characterizing and treating EVs, as well as for key related activities. Summary/Conclusion: Safe, efficient and specific nano-delivery systems are essential to current therapeutic medicine, cosmetic and nutraceutics sectors. The ability to optimize the bioavailability, stability and targeted cellular uptake of a bioactive molecule while mitigating toxicity, immunogenicity and off-target/side effects is of the utmost priority. VES4US aims at creating a fundamentally new bioprocessing approach to generate and functionalize EVs from a renewable biological source. Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 801338.