» Collaborative Research » Ongoing Research Projects » Research proEVLifeCycle

The life cycle of extracellular vesicles in prostate cancer: from biogenesis and homing, to functional relevance

EU proEVLifeCycle Financing: proEVLifeCycle is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860303.
Duration: January 2019 – December 2023
Web: https://proevlifecycle.eu/
Web EU: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/860303



Consortium description

Our international consortium is composed of 8 academic institutions and 2 companies with the support of 11 partner organisations. The 10 proEVLifeCycle host institutions are based in Barcelona, Cardiff, Derio, Leiden, Madrid, Paris, Rotterdam, Turku, Utrecht and Vienna:

  • EMC - Erasmus Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam - Prof. Guido Jenster
  • Cardiff - Cardiff University - Dr. Aled Clayton
  • UTU - Turun Yliopisto - Dr. Urpo Lamminmäki
  • AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH - Dr. Christa Nöhammer
  • CIC bioGUNE- Asociacion Centro De Investigacion Cooperativea En Biociencias - Prof. Juan Manuel Falcon-Perez
  • INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale - Dr. Guillaume van Niel
  • CNIO - Fundación Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas Carlos III - Dr. Hector Peinado Selgas
  • GS – GenomeScan - Dr. Zoraide Granchi
  • AX- Anaxomics Biotech, S.L. - Dr. José Manuel Mas
  • EXC – EXCYTEX- Prof. Raymond Schiffelers

Project Description

In proEVLifeCycle, we aim to unravel the mysteries of extracellular vesicles (EV) biogenesis, homing and uptake to explain how EVs operate in disease processes, their heterogeneity, their molecular complexity, the biological functions they drive, their local and systemic dissemination and how these may be manipulated.

Evidence is mounting that EVs play pivotal roles in prostate cancer (PCa) progression through adapting the tumor cell local environment, damping the immune response and creating niches for metastases7. Identifying novel methods to intervene with these functional aspects provides new treatment modalities for early and late stage disease. The release of PCa-derived EVs in urine and blood has sparked a novel area of research on early detection, prognostic and monitoring biomarkers. It is therefore our overarching research objective that by understanding the lifecycle of EVs and their biomarker characteristics, the unmet clinical needs of PCa can be resolved.

ANAXOMICS is training an Early Stage Researcher that in collaboration with all other ESRs will perform EV Systems Biology and Analysis to unravel the pathways responsible for the EV lifecycle, the most promising therapy targets and relevant Prostate cancer biomarkers .


Our student Pedro Matos Filipe talks about his Ph.D experience within our ITN proEVLifeCycle Designed and produced by Liam Kelly.

Publications

Contact Us