We are pleased to announce that Prof. Bernd Giebel from the University Hospital Essen, Germany, will join Targeting Extracellular Vesicles 2026 as a speaker.

Human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) represent a therapeutically relevant yet highly heterogeneous cell population, known for their potent immunomodulatory and regenerative properties. Increasing evidence indicates that a significant portion of MSCs’ therapeutic effects is mediated by extracellular vesicles (EVs).

EVs are nanosized, membrane-enclosed particles released by virtually all cell types, carrying a cell-type-specific cargo of proteins, lipids, and, to some extent, nucleic acids. Beyond serving as a novel class of disease biomarkers, a proportion of EVs act as powerful mediators of intercellular communication. In particular, appropriate MSC-EV products can reprogram immune responses from pro-inflammatory toward regulatory phenotypes, a mechanism believed to promote tissue regeneration and healing.

Our current mission focuses on optimizing MSC-EV production in a scalable, GMP-compliant manner and developing a comprehensive quality control platform to support clinical translation. A major challenge inherited from the MSC field is the inconsistent efficacy of MSC-based therapies; not all MSC products demonstrate therapeutic benefit in patients. Similarly, we observe functional variability among independent MSC-EV preparations, even when derived from the same MSC source material.

To address these limitations, we established an immortalization strategy to generate MSC lines at the clonal level. EV products manufactured from these clonally expanded immortalized MSCs (ciMSCs) retain their immunomodulatory activity and can confer therapeutic effects in vivo. We consider this an essential milestone toward scalable and standardized MSC-EV production for clinical applications. Currently, we are refining upstream and downstream processes to ensure robust and reproducible manufacturing.

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