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Page 18 Graner. Extracell Vesicles Circ Nucleic Acids 2020;1:3-19 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/evcna.2020.08

cases. The brain-serum EV work was extended to Parkinson’s Disease (PD), where they found miRs that
could distinguish PD stages. They further extended the brain EV work to amyloid lateral sclerosis (ALS)
patients, where they identified potential protein and miR biomarkers that relate to ALS pathology. Some
of their early work was done in prion disease in mice, which eventually led to brain and blood sampling
to identify EV biomarkers that could be used for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. This work
represents a tour de force of investigating disease characteristics of neuropathologies and their relationships
to potential blood-based biomarkers.

In the last two portions of the meeting, Fatah Kashanchi (George Mason University, US) held an interactive
workshop on grant writing aimed especially at obtaining funding via the US NIH aimed at young (and not
so young) investigators. He supplied potential applicants with the perspective of a grant reviewer, and what
the reviewers want and expect to see, and he incorporated NIDA’s John Satterlee’s “ten commandments for
preparing a compelling R01 application”. He then provided an example of a Specific Aims page and gave
rationales for what was stated, why reviewers need and want specific information, and how the applicant
should supply that.

The Closing Ceremonies also served as an award platform for young investigators; these included speakers:

Moran Amit (MD Anderson, US)
Frederik Verweij (Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris, France)
Hannah McMillan (Duke University, US)

Poster awards went to

Killian O’Brien (Harvard/MGH, US)
Kathleen Lennon (City of Hope, US)

As the ASEMV and the exosome/EV field have grown over the years, the areas of biology and pathology
studied have increased as well. While much research has focused on cancer in the “early years”, we see in this
conference the breadth of diseases studied, including the basic biology of vesicles in normal tissues, systems,
and organisms. Vesicles are now viewed as communicators between and among cells, as well as between
hosts, pathogens, symbionts, and kingdoms. The analytical and separation technologies have advanced, while
some of the classical techniques continue to maintain their value. Every year brings startling changes, more
information, and often more confusion, which one might describe as science in its element.

The ASEMV Annual Meeting for 2021 is already in the planning phase and we hope to meet again in person,
and continue to highlight some of the best of exosome/extracellular vesicle science.

ASEMV would like to thank the Organizing Committee for their efforts, and in particular, Roger Alexander
for his tireless work in preparing the online format.

Louise Laurent, UC San Diego, ASEMV2020 Organizing Committee Chair
Steve Gould, Johns Hopkins University, ASEMV President
Roger Alexander, Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium
Nihal Altan-Bonnet, NIH NHLBI
Michael Graner, University of Colorado Anschutz
Kendall Jensen, Translational Genomics Research Institute
Fatah Kashanchi, George Mason University
Meta Kuehn, Duke University