Supervisor(s): Professor David Greening and Alin Rai
The Molecular Proteomics laboratory is focused on understanding the molecular function of nano-sized biological extracellular vesicles (EVs) and how their intercellular signalling is important in normal cardiac physiology and disease. Given the heart's limited regenerative capacity, developing strategies to restore lost cardiac tissue remains a critical, unmet challenge in cardiovascular medicine. Our goal is to engineer EVs to overcome limitations in their therapeutic application and identify new deliverable therapeutic targets.
Project summary
Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are synthetic lipid-based delivery systems widely used for therapeutic nucleic acid delivery due to their enhanced stability, biocompatibility, cellular uptake efficiency, and scalable manufacturing capacity. Importantly, LNP technologies have demonstrated significant translational success in nucleic acid therapeutics, highlighting their potential as delivery platforms for regenerative medicine applications. Extracellular vesicles possess significant cardiac repair potential but remain limited in their therapeutic potency.
This project aims to investigate the key molecular drivers of EV-LNP hybrid vesicles through functional and quantitative proteomic analyses. Understanding how EV-LNP hybridisation modulates intercellular signalling may identify novel strategies to enhance vascular repair and cardiac regeneration following heart attack.