Abstract
The demonstration that extracellular vesicles (EVs), carrying RNA, DNA, proteins, lipids and metabolites, play
important roles in maintaining human health as well as contribute to driving disease has opened up a whole
new field of research. Therefore, EVs have tremendous biologic significance and clinical potential, making a
meeting focused on this area of research both highly timely and highly significant. The 4th Gordon Research
Conference (GRC) and 3rd Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) entitled “Extracellular vesicles: structure and
function, technology development, and clinical application" to be held July 28 - August 2, 2024, at the Grand
Summit Hotel at Sunday River in Newry, Maine, will bring together a very diverse array of senior and early
career investigators in both basic and clinical fields. There will be an emphasis on promoting interactions
between participants to facilitate the development of collaborative and translational research. GRCs are one of
only a few types of meetings that facilitate these important interactions between senior and junior investigators.
This GRC will be led off with keynote presentations by Guillaume van Niel and Xandra Breakefield on EV
biogenesis and on EVs as biomarkers in cancer, respectively followed by sessions covering: 1) Fundaments of
EV Biology & Diversity; 2) Novel developments in EV diagnostics; 3) Novel developments in EV engineering for
therapy 4) EVs in cancer; 5) EVs in immune biology and disease; 6) EVs in neurobiology and disease; 7) EVs
in host-pathogen interactions; 8) EVs in preclinical and clinical settings. General issues to be focused on will be
EV heterogeneity, isolation and quantification strategies, trafficking of EVs, the role of EVs in disease and
therapeutic efficacy of EVs, both pre-clinically and clinically. Up to 12 open speaker slots have been reserved
for early career investigators who will be selected from submitted abstracts. There also will be GRC Power
Hour, designed to address challenges women and other minorities face in science and issues of unconscious
bias, diversity and inclusion. In this proposal, we seek to obtain funding to support registration fees for invited
speakers and discussion leaders (prioritizing women, minorities, grads, post-grads and early career
researchers) for both the GRC and GRS. Overall, the GRC and GRS on EVs promise to be very diverse and
exciting conferences, which should lead to important collaborations that move the field forward both to basic
studies and clinical applications.