A collaborative research effort at the Wyss Institute led by its Core Faculty members David Walt, Ph.D. and George Church, Ph.D. has developed new tools to measure and isolate tiny membrane-enclosed extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are shed by all cells in the body. EVs carry molecular cargo from their tissues of origin that could be used to diagnose diseases, including neurological diseases and brain cancers. The team, supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s Neurodegenerative Challenge Network and Open Philanthropy, pursues strategies with which to detect signs of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease at their earliest stages and as they continue to develop. Their work, published in eLife, enables a systematic analysis of EV isolation methods from plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, an important step toward diagnosing diseases of the brain and other organs.
