Day 1 of the Sixth Annual International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) conference May 18-21 in Toronto, Canada, was officially opened Thursday morning with brief remarks by ISEV President Andy Hill, PhD, and International Organizing Committee Chairperson Sumitsa Sahoo, PhD. Dr. Hill welcomed the largest group of ISEV attendees ever (just slightly under 1,000) from more than 50 countries and applauded the worldwide research effort on EVs that is gathering ever-greater momentum. Dr. Sahoo warmly welcomed everyone to Canada and noted that the country is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. She foreshadowed the seven plenary address that would be given over the next three days of the meeting and noted that 30 different symposia and six Meet the Expert sessions would be held in addition to many poster sessions and satellite events. She also thanked the numerous meeting sponsors. She then declared the meeting officially open and called on Marca Wauben, Ph.D., to introduce the first plenary speaker, Philip Stahl, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor Emeritus, Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri. But her introduction was extra-special as it began with her presenting Dr. Stahl with the prestigious ISEV 2017 Special Achievement Award for his work, in 1983, in first describing the “exosome secretion pathway” and demonstrating that multivesicular bodies (MVBs) release their vesicles into the extracellular milieu after fusion with the plasma membrane.Login Or Register To Read Full Story