The research team of Professor Jaesung Park (ME) and Prof. Yong Song Gho (LIFE) has developed a nanovesicle formation method that can simply and quickly force cells through hydrophilic microchannels to generate artificial nanovesicles. The thesis, ?icrofluidic fabrication of cell-derived nanovesicles as endogenous RNA carriers? was published on the first cover of Lab on a Chip .
Originally, it was thought that nanometer sized exosomes were useless materials. However, the team discovered that they contained essential materials for mRNA and proteins. Moreover, as these materials were known to function for cell signaling, they are being researched for therapeutic applications.
The cell is first passed through a straight microchannel so that the cell would be broken down. Then using the cell membrane? self-assembly property, the team has successfully created a nanovesicle that contained the materials that were in the cell. It was discovered that the artificial nanovesicle not only has membrane proteins that are similar to exosomes, but can also transfer cell materials to other cells.