Biogenesis and Trafficking of Intracellular and Extracellular Vesicles
Overview
Vesicles are important transport vehicles in eukaryotic cells that function to deliver proteins, lipids and nucleotides from one place to other places. Vesicles can be broadly classified into two categories: intracellular vesicles and extracellular vesicles. Intracellular vesicles function to shuttle molecules within the cells. This process is essential to deliver molecules, such as insulins and hormones, from inside of the cells to outside of the cells for them to perform their physiological functions. This process is also important for the cells to receive nutrients as well as other molecules from outside of the cell so that cells can grow and sense the outside environment. The 2013 Nobel Prize was awarded to scientists who identified the genes and proteins that mediate intracellular vesicular trafficking. IAS Senior Visiting Fellow Prof. Randy SCHEKMAN, one of the laureates of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, will give a lecture in this symposium. Recently, various experimental approaches have been performed which have provided clear functional and mechanistic insights into the biogenesis of intracellular vesicles. Moreover, significant progresses have been achieved in understanding how vesicular trafficking regulates the physiological and pathological processes.
Extracellular vesicles are small vesicles that are secreted into the extracellular environment by cells. These vesicles contain various proteins and nucleic acids and are proposed to function as key mediators of intercellular communication. Recently, extracellular vesicles have generated intense interest in the scientific community as studies demonstrate that the content of extracellular vesicles once delivered to the recipient cells could change the behavior of the recipient cells. Several seminal findings demonstrate that the intercellular communication mediated by extracellular vesicles plays critical roles in various disease processes such as cancer progression. Moreover, extracellular vesicles are shown to contain important biomarkers for clinical diagnosis.
The overall goal of the symposium is to gather top scientists working on vesicular trafficking to share their most recent breakthroughs and discoveries. The symposium also aims to promote information dissemination to other academic communities in order to foster interdisciplinary communication and collaboration. Furthermore, an important emphasis of the symposium is to promote interaction between local and international scientists and stimulate their collaborations. This IAS Symposium will cover many aspects of the study of vesicle biogenesis such as: 1) biogenesis of vesicles derived from the endoplasmic reticulum; 2) biogenesis of vesicles derived from the trans Golgi network; 3) biogenesis of extracellular vesicles; 4) roles of vesicular trafficking in the physiological and pathological processes.
