Extracellular Vesicles: Packets of Information

The Vanderbilt Center for Extracellular Vesicle Research aims to catalyze innovative and transformative research with broad impact in the rapidly evolving

extracellular vesicle (EV) field by promoting synergistic and interdisciplinary collaborations, enabling access to key technologies, advancing education, and engaging in global outreach to the international extracellular vesicle community. Extracellular vesicles, including exosomes and microvesicles, are small lipid enclosed carriers of bioactive proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids.  Only recently discovered, there is emerging recognition that extracellular vesicles play a fundamental and evolutionarily conserved role in cellular communication. Extracellular vesicles control a wide range of behaviors and provide a mechanism of communication between cells, organs, organ systems, and organisms.