Research focus
• Proteolytic cleavages and their role in neurodegenerative diseases
• Prion protein (PrP) biology & Prion diseases
• Extracellular vesicles in brain physiology and diseases

EV methods and infrastructure
*Ultracentrifuge (Optima L-100 XP with SW 40 Ti swinging-bucket rotor; Beckman Coulter),
*NTA: Nanosight Pro (Malvern Panalytical)
*) both machines managed/supervised by Dr. Mohsin Shafiq
• primary cells (neurons, astrocytes) & brain slice cultures

EV-related lab expertise
• Functional roles of PrP on EVs
• Activity and relevance of continued activity of EV surface
• Proteases (e.g. metalloproteases like ADAMs) • Cell biological/biochemical assessments

Petra Arck

Experimental Feto-Materal Medicine (UKE)

Research focus
• Feto-Maternal Immunology, Fetal immune development, Infectious diseases, Environmental Stressors during pregnancy,
EVs as messenger of feto-maternal communication, EVs as biomarker of pregnancy complications

EV methods and infrastructure
Imaging Flow Cytometry (Amnis Image Stream) for surface
protein profiling
Enrichment of specific EV subpopulations using
Flourescene-Activated Cell Sorters (Aria Fusion, BD S8)
Tissue multiplex immunoflourescence imaging via Akoya
Phenocycler

EV-related lab expertise
• EV isolation from blood samples
• EVs during pregnancy
• Proteomics analysis of EVs (surface protein profiling & cargo analysis)
• EV enrichment via sorting
• EV uptake experiments

Jochen Behrends

Fluorescence Cytometry (Research Center Borstel)

Research focus
flow cytometry and cell sorting core facility

EV methods and infrastructure
Discover S8 (analysis & sorting of EVs)
Symphony A1 with Small Particle Detector
(in other Cores tested using small beads: Cytek, Sony, Nanoflex, Agilent)

EV-related lab expertise

Fabian Braun

Kidney Health (UKE)

Research focus
• Rare kidney diseases and intercellular signalling
mediated through Evs

Barbara Braunger

Neuroanatomy (UKE)

Research focus
• Retinal angiogenesis in health and diseases

EV methods and infrastructure
• Electron microscope (2x TEM)

EV-related lab expertise
• Isolation and characterization of EVs as potential biomarkers from biofluids and tissues following oxygen induced vascular damage (new project)

Nicole Fischer

Molecular Virology and Tumorvirology (UKE)

Research focus
• Extracellular vesicles (EVs) in chronic DNA virus infections, EV-mediated mechanisms of virus-associated tumorigenesis,
EVs in physiologically relevant infection models, Isolation and characterization of EVs from complex systems such as 3D organoids

EV methods and infrastructure
• BSL-2 cell culture and virus infection systems
Ultracentrifugation-based isolation of extracellular vesicles and viral particles in BSL-2 laboratories
Experimental infection models for clinically relevant human polyomaviruses and skin-tropic viruses

EV-related lab expertise
• Isolation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) from cell culture supernatants using differential ultracentrifugation and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC)
• RNA extraction from EVs, including both long and small RNA species
•Transcriptomic analysis of EV RNA cargo in collaboration with the Next Generation Sequencing Technology Platform at the LIV
• Proteomic profiling of EVs in collaboration with the Core Facility for Mass Spectrometric Proteomics at the UKE

Markus Glatzel / Mohsin Shafiq

Neuropathology (UKE)

Research focus
• EVs in amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and plaque association, human AD brain-derived EVs

EV methods and infrastructure
• EVs in amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation and plaque association, human AD brain-derived EVs

EV-related lab expertise
• EV preparation and analysis from varius sources incl. Solid tissues and eukaryotic/bacterial cell cultures, STED microscopy, cryo-ET, small angle X-ray scattering, -omics

Katarzyna Grochowska

Synaptic Neuroscience (UKE)

Research focus
• Synaptic protein homeostasis, age-related neurodegeneration, endolysosomal pathway

EV-related lab expertise
• Microscopy assays to visualize exocytosis; microscopy tools (reporters,
optogenetic tools) to monitor and characterize different stages of the endolysosomal pathway (sorting of cargo and routing to degradation or release); super-resolution nanoscopy
Research models: primary neuronal and astrocytic cultures, organotypic hippocampal slice culture, in vivo imaging

Mirko Himmel

Microbiology & Biotechnology (UHH/Biologie)

Research focus
* Characterisation of molecular virulence factors of bacterial pathogens such as human pathogenic Burkholderia species
* Host-pathogen interactions between mamalian and other eukaryotic hosts including plants and amoebia

EV methods and infrastructure
• Live cell imaging microscope system

EV-related lab expertise
• Infection studies will be extended to
bacterial EV delivering potential virulence factors to host
cells prior host cell invasion by the pathogen

Stefan Hoth

Molecular Plant Physiology (UHH/Biologie)

Research focus
• developmental and stress physiology of plants using state-of-the-art molecular biological, biochemical, genetic, molecular physiological, and cell biological methods. plant defense against heat stress and pathogens in a changing climate.

EV methods and infrastructure
• Confocal laser scanning microscopy

EV-related lab expertise
• Microscopy assays to visualize exocytosis; microscopy tools (reporters, omembrane-associated E3 ubiquitin ligase, vesicle formation in transgenic plants

Julia Kehr

Molecular Plant Genetics (UHH/Biologie)

Research focus
• Plant long-distance signalling under stress
• Mobile RNAs, RNA-binding proteins, RNA-protein phase separation, cross kingdom RNA transfer

EV methods and infrastructure
• MALDI-TOF MS/MS, SEC EV purification / TEM, ultracentrifugation (institute)

EV-related lab expertise
• EV isolation from plant material and fungal culture
• Protein biochemistry and mass spec
• EV protein and RNA-seq analysis
• Plant and fungus transformation

Matthias Kneussel

Molecular Neurogenetics (UKE)

Research focus
• Neuronal Cell Biology
• Synaptic Biology and Physiology
• Learning, Memory, Synaptic Plasticity
• Dementia, Alzheimer`s Disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Neurotransmitter receptor trafficking
• Neuronal Cytoskeleton

EV methods and infrastructure
• NTA particle size analyzer (Nanosight LM10)

EV-related lab expertise
• Synaptic Tetraspanin protein Tspan15 in EV regulation
• Intraneuronal EV biogenesis
• Prion protein secretion via Evs

Michael Kolbe

Structural Infection Biology (CSSB)

Research focus
• Cellular Microbiology, Host-Pathogen Interaction, Molecular Mechanisms, Structural Biology

EV methods and infrastructure
• EM, X-ray, light microscopy, BioSAXS

EV-related lab expertise
• EVs and virulence factors in phage biology

Ines Krohn

Microbiology & Biotechnology (UHH/Biologie)

Research focus
• microalgae–bacteria interactions; biofilms; metagenomics; multi-omics; microbial consortia;
EPS; electron microscopy; synthetic microbiology; marine biotechnology; enzymes; microbiomes

EV methods and infrastructure
• infrastructure for electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), advanced biofilm imaging, and multi-omics platforms (proteomics, metabolomics, metagenomics).

EV-related lab expertise
• microalgae - bacteria interactions, multispecies biofilms, and aquatic microbiomes. EPS characterization, multi-omics of microbial consortia, and electron microscopy

Stefan Linder

Institut für medizinische Mikrobiologie, Virologie und Hygiene (UKE)

Research focus
• Macrophage adhesion, migration, phagocytosis
• Host-pathogen interaction
• Uptake of Borrelia burgdorferi + Candida auris

EV methods and infrastructure
• Ultracentrifuge, Microscopes

EV-related lab expertise
• Preparation of bacterial outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)
• Vesicle labeling
• Confocal + live cell imaging of vesicle uptake

Wael Mansour

Radiotherapy (UKE)

Research focus
• DNA Repair, DSB-repair, Synthetic lethality, Pre-clinical patient derived modelling, Patient-derived Organoids, Tissue Slice Culture, Extracellular Vesicles, Prostate Cancer, Lung Cancer, Testicluar tumors

EV methods and infrastructure
• Keyence BZ-X1000 Fluorescence Microscope, Gulmay Xstrahl RS225 cabinet irradiator (X-rays), EV Isolation via TFF + SEC.

EV-related lab expertise
• Impact of EVs on prostate cancer progression and treatment response

Catherine Meyer-Schwesinger

Cellular and Integrative Physiology (UKE)

Research focus
• AIT-EVs, immune-mediated (kidney) disease, mebranous nephropathy, podocyte injury tumors

EV methods and infrastructure
• Beckman coulter Optima MAX-TL Ultracentrifuge with TLA-55 Fixed-Angle Rotor (12 x 1.5 ml tubes)
• Beckmann coulter 70Ti Fixed-Angle Rotor with 26.3 ml polycarbonate tubes (from 2027 on also a UKE shared Beckman Optima XPN80 ultracentrifuge)

EV-related lab expertise
• podocyte-derived, autoantibody-triggered extracellular vesicles (AIT-EVs).

Andreas Neueder

Molecular Neurobiologyy (UKE)

Research focus
• Systems biology, RNA homeostasis, Cell-to-Cell Communication, Epigenetic Regulation

EV methods and infrastructure
• Nanosight LM10, Nanopore Promethion, GPU/CPU Server

EV-related lab expertise
• General characterisation, 'omics (RNA and protein), ML-based evaluations of datasets, EV biogenesis

Klaus Pantel

Tumor Biology (UKE)

Research focus
• Liquid Biopsy Research
• Translational Oncology
• Biomarker Discovery
• Functional analysis

EV methods and infrastructure
• IZON Automatic Fraction Collector

EV-related lab expertise
• EV Isolation
• EV Proteomics
• Patient-derived EVs

Sandra Paradies

Skeletal Pathobiochemistry (UKE)

Research focus
• Molecular mechanisms balancing skeletal matrix synthesis and degradation
• Pathophysiological basis of genetically inherited skeletal disorders in childhood.
• Bone cell-derived EVs and their role in the mineralization process of bone tissue.

EV methods and infrastructure
• Ultracentrifuge, Nanosight Pro (NTA)

EV-related lab expertise
• EV isolation from various cell types including primary osteoblasts and fibroblasts
• Characterisation of vesicles via Western Blot and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA)

Maike Saul

Oncology (UKE)

Research focus
• EVs in cancer and inflammatory diseases, lung cancer

EV methods and infrastructure
• SEC, TFF-based EV concentration and sampling, anion exchange chromatography (AEX), marker-defined affinity enrichment approaches, ONI Nanoimager/dSTORM super-resolution microscopy, ExoView R100-based single-particle analysis

EV-related lab expertise
* EV isolation, enrichment and characterization from cell culture supernatants and patient-derived biofluids, including plasma and exhaled breath condensate (EBC)
* SEC-based EV isolation/fractionation and automated TFF-based EV concentration/sample processing
* Scalable EV purification and downstream-processing strategies, including anion exchange chromatography (AEX) and marker-defined affinity enrichment with Nanofitin-based approaches
* EV-associated RNA and miRNA profiling for biomarker discovery and validation
* Analysis of EV cargo sorting, biogenesis/release and EV-mediated tumor–immune communication
* Functional EV assays, including uptake assays and recipient-cell response analyses in tumor, immune and stromal cell systems
* Single-vesicle EV characterization, including super-resolution imaging
* Translational EV biology in oncology and inflammatory disease contexts

Noenne Prisle

Aerosol Research (DESY)

Research focus
• Aerosols and aqueous surfactants, atmospheric chemistry, cloud nucleation, climate change

EV methods and infrastructure
• Thermodynamic models Artificial aerosol and cloud generator for NMR and XPS experiments

EV-related lab expertise
• thermodynamic modeling, MD simulations, and NMR to investigate vesicle formation and properties

Berta Puig

Experimental Research in Stroke and Immunology (ERSI-UKE)

Research focus
• Glial EVs in neuronal responses following stroke

EV methods and infrastructure
• EV isolation, EV immunoprecipitation and sorting, EV RNA isolation, EV labeling (dyes, antibodies)

EV-related lab expertise
• Isolation of EVs from tissue, blood and cell culture
• EV immunoprecipitation and sorting
• Characterization: NTA, western blot
• Proteomic analysis in collaboration with the UKE core facility
• EV RNA isolation
• EV labelling with particular dyes for confocal microscopy studies
• Functional studies (EV incubation with recipient cells)

Franz Ricklefs

Neurosurgery (UKE)

Research focus
• EVs in brain tumors
• Glioblastoma
• Meningioma
• Biomarker
• Liquid biopsy

EV methods and infrastructure
• dUC, ddPCR, SEC, standard Wet-Lab, animal models, Imaging EV related plasmids

EV-related lab expertise
• isolation, Imaging, Cell culture, blood, tissue, animal models, Flow, Image Stream, DNA, Methylation, ddPCR, Epigenetics, clinical translation

Amanda Salviano-Silva

Hirntumorbiologie (UKE)

Research focus
• EVs as biomarkers in brain tumors and single EV analysis

EV methods and infrastructure
• Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) equipment, Ultracentrifuge, SEC, MACS, EV labeling for IFCM, DNA/RNA isolation from EVs, high-sensitive Qubit assays, Western blot, Nanopore sequencing

EV-related lab expertise
• Analysis of protein and nucleic acids of cell culture-, tumor-, CSF-, and plasma-EVs, for identification of clinical biomarkers for glioblastoma and brain metastases.

Chen Shen

PETRA III Synchrotron (DESY)

Research focus
• structure and dynamics of soft matter thin films incl. biomembranes (with X-ray and neutron scattering);
X-ray methodology / instrumentations for surface characterisation

EV methods and infrastructure
(1) PETRA III synchrotron based instruments:
a. Langmuir GID setup: grazing incidence X-ray scattering from Langmuir trough
b. hydration chambers on Kohzu diffractometer: X-ray scattering from biomembranes (solid-liquid interface / hydrated multilayers)
(2) lab instrument: MicroCal Calorimeter, Brewster Angle Microscope, Langmuir troughs

EV-related lab expertise
• X-ray / neutron scattering on model biomembranes (Langmuir films, hydrated multilayers, supported biomembranes at substrate/buffer interface, vesicle dispersion): reflectivity, grazing incidence small- and wide-angle scattering, x-ray fluorescence, neutron spectroscopy Langmuir trough; differential scanning calorimetry;

Maya Topf

Integrative Virology (LIV/UKE/CSSB)

Research focus
• structure and dynamics of soft matter thin films incl. biomembranes (with X-ray and neutron scattering);
X-ray methodology / instrumentations for surface characterisation

EV methods and infrastructure
• computational methods for cryoEM/cryoET and mass spec

EV-related lab expertise
• modeling, bioinformatics, machine learning of macromolecular assemblies in viruses

Baris Tursun

Molecular Cell Biology of Animals (IZS)

Research focus
• Molecular ell Biology, Cellular Reprogramming, Aging, Epigenetics, C. elegans

EV methods and infrastructure
• C. elegans; Confocal Microscope with FLIM

EV-related lab expertise
• Working with neuron in C. elegans that extrude exophers

Arne Weiberg

RNA Infection Biology of Plants (UHH/Biologie)

Research focus
• Plant-Microbe Interactions, RNA Biology

EV methods and infrastructure
• Ultracentrifuge, Thunder Imaging System

EV-related lab expertise
• EV-RNA, EV protein analysis, Plant growth and infection systems, fungal/plant transformation, fluorescence microscopy

EV Initiative

Personen / People

Hermann Altmeppen