Exosomes are vesicles secreted by human cells. By allowing the transfer of bioactive molecules between cells, exosomes play an important role in cell-cell communication. In particular, exosomes participate in propagating metastatic signals in cancer. In this project, our central goal is to determine the basic mechanisms by which exosomes transfer signals from metastatic cancer cells to other cells, thereby promoting disease. To pursue this goal, several novel assays that report quantitatively on exosomal cell entry will be developed. We will use these assays to learn how the surface composition of exosomes controls where they go and what they do. These biological ground rules of exosomal fun...

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Exosomes are vesicles secreted by human cells. By allowing the transfer of bioactive molecules between cells, exosomes play an important role in cell-cell communication. In particular, exosomes participate in propagating metastatic signals in cancer. In this project, our central goal is to determine the basic mechanisms by which exosomes transfer signals from metastatic cancer cells to other cells, thereby promoting disease. To pursue this goal, several novel assays that report quantitatively on exosomal cell entry will be developed. We will use these assays to learn how the surface composition of exosomes controls where they go and what they do. These biological ground rules of exosomal function will be used to dissect signaling mechanisms further and will serve as a foundational knowledge that, in the future, will facilitate the manipulation and therapeutic exploitation of exosomal signaling in cancer.

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