Postgraduate research opportunities Extracellular Vesicles and Metabolic Disease

Extracellular Vesicles [ECVs] are increasingly being viewed as key players in cell-cell or even tissue-tissue communication. ECVs are lipid bilayer surrounded particles which are released by many cells, including adipocytes, liver and nerve cells. ECVs contain proteins, lipids and miRNA/mRNA which act as signals to other cells and often are transported through the blood to other tissues. ECVs can also cross biological barriers, raising interest in these structures as gene/medicine delivery vectors. However, we know little about how ECVs are released, or how their contents and function are controlled.

There is a growing body of evidence that ECVs play a key role in metabolic disease. For example, ECVs mediate adipose/liver cross talk, and also function in communication between adipocytes and inflammatory cells. The role of ECVs in neuronal cell signalling remains ill-defined.

This project will use model neuronal and adipocyte cell lines and liver spheroids as sources of ECVs and test the hypothesis that the composition of these ECVs and their downstream effects vary depending on factors such as hypoxia, glucopenia/neuroglucopenia or insulin resistance.

We will also address the mechanism of ECV release using genome-editing approaches to control exocytosis in adipocytes as a model system.

Techniques used:

Cell Culture

Centrifugation/nanocyte analysis of ECVs

Protein analysis

Imaging

Genome Editing/siRNA approaches