To promote exchange on EV related research that affects every day lab-work, networks at local level are needed, enabling a much more intensive exchange of expertise. In the university city of Erlangen, such a local group the "EV - Erlangen Vesicles" has recently been established. This groups includes scientists from Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the University Hospital Erlangen. FAU, founded in 1743, is one of the leading research universities in Germany with almost 40,000 students and 6,600 employees. According to the THE Impact Ranking 2024, FAU is one of the most innovative universities in Germany and globally.
Prof Claudia Günther (Department of Medicine 1, University Hospital Erlangen) and Dr Philipp Arnold (Institute of Functional and Clinical Anatomy, FAU) initiated the Erlangen Vesicles in May 2023 and regular monthly meetings in a Jour Fixe format have been held since. On average, 25-30 scientists from many different fields and backgrounds attend these Jour Fixe meetings. In Erlangen, we have the unique situation that we have groups on site working on bacterial-derived EVs and on eukaryote-derived EVs . With a very strong focus on immune-mediated inflammatory diseases the Medical Faculty of the FAU and the University Hospital have a long-standing record in host-pathogen interaction. As EV from different origin can cross endothelial and epithelial barriers in health and disease many research questions arise around this complex. The groups from the Medical Faculty and University Hospital are joined by groups from the Natural Sciences, which bring invaluable research tools and methods to the initiative. The initial goal in finding the Erlangen Vesicles was to encourage researchers to share their EV-related protocols and methods for EV characterization and such foster methodological exchange. In the meantime, this methodological exchange lead not only to the exchange of methods for EV characterization such as transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle-tracking analysis and biochemical characterization, but to the exchange of research models used in EV research. These include for example stem cell-derived organoid, in vivo application into mice and zebra fish, serum and plasma samples of different patient cohorts, isolation and genetic manipulation of patient derived bacterial strains and the exchange of EV isolates from different origin for testing in research models (Fig. 1).
