Project partners meeting in Naples: Advancing nutriEV research
On April 3rd, members of the NutriEV research project gathered at CNR in Naples to strengthen collaboration and deepen their understanding of extracellular vesicles (EVs) and plant-derived nanoparticles (nutriEVs)—tiny particles naturally released by plants that may have nutritional and health-promoting properties.
Professor Michael Hust from Technische Universität Braunschweig and his colleague Philip Heine visited the Naples division of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources (IBBR), part of Italy’s National Research Council (CNR), where they were welcomed by the local team led by Gabriella Pocsfalvi.
The visit focused on learning how these particles are isolated, purified and characterised from fava bean (Vicia faba) and wheat grass (Triticum aestivum) using state of the art technologies such as the µPulse® – TFF tangential flow filtration (TFF) and Videodrop nanometric particle imaging technology available at the Extracellular vesicles and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (EVs-MS lab) of CNR.
EVs-MS research group of IBBR-CNR with its expertise in EV isolation, mass spectrometry, and molecular profiling, plays a key role in supporting the NutriEV project. Gabriella Pocsfalvi, an expert in EVs and analytical chemistry, was joined by Ani Barbulova (plant cell cultures), Immacolata Fiume (proteomics), and Yu-Hsin Chang (EV characterization technologies), who demonstrated key steps of the isolation process and shared current research results with the visiting team.
While no experiments were conducted, the demonstrations gave the visiting team a clearer picture of how this process can help to develop nutriEVs and plant EVs at suitable quality for the development antibodies that can detect these particles.
“The visit to CNR was essential for understanding the EV purification workflow and how it aligns with our antibody development strategy,” said Professor Michael Hust. “Seeing the process firsthand and discussing it in detail with Gabriella, Ani, and Yu-Hsin gave us valuable insights that will help us adapt and optimize our methods in Braunschweig.”
On the other hand, Philip Heine presented different phage display based approaches and strategies for the antibody selection which is essential to understand and discuss which are the requirements for antibody generation.
In addition to lab work, the team reviewed the latest research data on plant EV-protein biomarkers, especially from Arabidopsis thaliana, a well-studied model plant. Together, the researchers created a priority list of proteins they plan to use to develop antibodies to track nutriEVs movements in the human body. They also discussed which known plant EV biomarkers—mainly identified in Arabidopsis—are potentially present in bean and wheat, in order to begin antibody development in parallel with protein production. These discussions are central to achieving the core scientific objectives of the NutriEV project.
Additionally, results of current nutriEVs isolation and characterization —presented by Yu-Hsin Chang—were reviewed and discussed in detail, helping to bring the research to the next steps.
This meeting highlighted the strong collaboration at the heart of the NutriEV project, which unites five European institutions: University of Oulu (Finland), CNR (Italy), Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and Zabala Innovation (Spain).
Each partner contributes unique expertise, ranging from molecular biology and food science to antibody technology and innovation strategy.
The visit to EVs-MS at CNR in Naples not only deepened the technical understanding among partners but also strengthened their shared vision for the next phases of the project.Pathfinder Precision Nutrition Challenge is expected to advance the understanding of diet’s role in health and chronic disease management.