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Bottom-Up Assembly of Bioinspired, Fully Synthetic Extracellular Vesicles

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The Immune Synapse

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2654))

Abstract

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid membrane-enclosed compartments released by cells for intercellular communication in homeostasis and disease. Studies have shown great therapeutic potential of EVs, including but not limited to regenerative and immunomodulatory therapies. Additionally, EVs are promising next-generation drug delivery systems due to their biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and inherent target specificity. However, clinical application of EVs is so far limited due to challenges in scaling up production, high heterogeneity, batch-to-batch variation, and limited control over composition. Although attaining a fundamental characterization of EVs’ functions is a compelling goal, these limitations have hindered a full understanding. Therefore, there is rising interest in exploiting the beneficial properties of EVs while gaining better control over their production and composition. Herein, we describe a method for the bottom-up assembly of bioinspired, fully synthetic vesicles that mimic the most important biophysical and biochemical properties of natural EVs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, Grant Agreement No. 13XP5073A, PolyAntiBak, and the MaxSynBio Consortium; the latter is jointly funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany and the Max Planck Society. They also acknowledge the support from the Volkswagen Stiftung (priority call “Life?”), the German Science Foundation SFB 1129 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy via the Excellence Cluster 3D Matter Made to Order (EXC-2082/1 – 390761711). The authors acknowledge Dr. Oskar Staufer for his contribution in establishment of emulsification method for synEVs formation and Alessandro Strada for critical reading of the manuscript. J.P.S. acknowledges funding from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award. M.M. acknowledges support from the Heidelberg Biosciences International Graduate School. The Max Planck Society is appreciated for its general support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Heidelberg, Germany

    Meline Macher, Ilia Platzman & Joachim P. Spatz

  2. Institute of Molecular Systems Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany

    Meline Macher, Ilia Platzman & Joachim P. Spatz

  3. Max Planck School Matter to Life, Heidelberg, Germany

    Meline Macher & Joachim P. Spatz

  4. Max Planck-Bristol Center for Minimal Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Meline Macher, Ilia Platzman & Joachim P. Spatz

Authors
  1. Meline Macher
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  2. Ilia Platzman
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  3. Joachim P. Spatz
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ilia Platzman or Joachim P. Spatz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy

    Cosima T. Baldari

  2. Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Michael L. Dustin

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Macher, M., Platzman, I., Spatz, J.P. (2023). Bottom-Up Assembly of Bioinspired, Fully Synthetic Extracellular Vesicles. In: Baldari, C.T., Dustin, M.L. (eds) The Immune Synapse. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2654. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3135-5_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3135-5_17

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-3134-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-3135-5

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