International Society for Extracellular Vesicles

The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) is an international scientific organization that focuses on the study of extracellular vesicles (EVs),^[1] including exosomes, microvesicles, oncosomes, and other vesicles outside the cell. Established in 2011, the society is a non-profit entity and is now a 501(c)(3) corporation in the United States. ISEV is governed by an executive committee. The current president of ISEV (2016-2018) is Andrew Hill; the founding president (2011-2016) is Jan Lötvall.^[2] The society publishes the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, the only journal devoted to the topic.

Meetings

As part of its mission to promote scientific research and education, ISEV hosts an annual meeting and educational event as well as numerous workshops on defined EV-related topics. ISEV also co-sponsors or endorses related events.

Annual meetings

• 2011: Paris (France, organizational meeting)^[3]
• 2012: Gothenburg, Sweden^[4]
• 2013: Boston (Massachusetts, United States)^[5][6][7]
• 2014: Rotterdam (Netherlands)^[8]
• 2015: Washington, DC (preceded by an Educational Day held in conjunction with the Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium of the US National Institutes of Health)^[9][10]
• 2016: Rotterdam (Netherlands)
• 2017: Toronto (Canada)

Workshops and scientific seminars

• Extracellular RNA (New York City, 2012)^[11]
• Diagnostics and Therapeutics (Singapore, 2013)^[12]
• Isolation and Characterization (Budapest, 2013)^[13] and
• Proteomics and Lipidomics (Melbourne, 2014)^[14]
• "EV-associated RNA: is there a purpose?" (Utrecht, 2015)^[15]
• "Application of Therapeutic EVs in the Patient" (Singapore, 2015)
• "Cross-Organism Communication by Extracellular Vesicles: Hosts, Microbes, Parasites" and Educational Event (São Paulo, Brazil, 2016)^[16]
• "Diet, Environment and Extracellular Vesicles" (Melbourne, Australia, 2017).

Endorsed or co-sponsored events

• The UK Extracellular Vesicles Forum (yearly, 2014, 2015, 2016)
• EV therapeutics meeting in Providence (Rhode Island, United States (2014)^[17]
• Meeting of the Spanish and Portuguese EV Society, GEIVEX
• The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Advanced Course on "EV Purification, Identification and Translation" (2015 and 2016)
• Keystone Symposium "Exosomes/Microvesicles: Novel Mechanisms of Cell-Cell Communication" (2016)^[18]
• Gordon Research Conference on "Biologic Effects and Therapeutic Potential of Extracellular Vesicles" (2016)^[19]
• Cold Spring Harbor Asia Meeting "Biology & Function of Extracellular Vesicles: Exosomes, Microvesicles & Beyond" (2016)^[20]

Journal of Extracellular Vesicles and standardization initiatives

To disseminate research, ISEV established in 2012 the peer-reviewed and open access Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, (J Extracell Vesicles or JEV).^[21] JEV is included in PubMed and Scopus. The editors-in-chief are Clotilde Théry (Institut Curie), Peter Quesenberry (Brown University) and Yong Song Gho (Pohang University of Science and Technology), and the founding editor was Jan Lötvall (University of Gothenburg). In addition to research and review articles, the journal periodically publishes position papers of the society^[22][23] that are meant to advance standardization efforts.

In 2014, the Executive Committee of ISEV published a set of minimal information guidelines for publication of EV studies.^[24][25] These requirements, known as "MISEV," mirror similar initiatives in the fields of microarray (MIAME) and proteomics (MIAPE) analysis, among others.

Education

Among the educational initiatives of ISEV is a massive open online course (MOOC) on the Basics of Extracellular Vesicles, launched in 2016 and available through Coursera. Coordinated by Cecilia Lässer, the MOOC is co-sponsored by the University of Gothenburg, Pohang University of Science and Technology, and the University of California, Irvine.^[26]

References

External links

• Official website
• Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
• Massive online open course, "Basics of Extracellular Vesicles"