On Tuesday, June 21, in the third of four Featured Abstracts being presented by junior investigators during the ISEV 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting (July 20-22) (https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/ISEV/), Elena Grueso Navarro (photo), a Marie Curie Fellow at TRAIN-EV* at the Institute for Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology, Medical Center-University of Freiburg, Breisgau, German, presented her group’s abstract (FA02) “Nuclear Proteins Are Recruited into Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Upon Expression of Tetraspanin Tspan8.” Ms. Navarro is a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Irina Nazarenko, PhD, Head, Exosomes & Tumor Group, Institute for Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology, Medical Center-University of Freiburg. In her introduction, Ms. Grueso Navarro noted that tetraspanin 8 (Tspan8) is a transmembrane protein that exhibits a unique expression pattern, being overexpressed in many cancer types, but undetectable in a majority of healthy tissues. When overexpressed, Tspan8 facilitates cell motility, and, in tumor models, it supports invasion and metastasis. In addition, Tspan8 is recruited to the extracellular vesicles (EVs). Previous work in Dr. Nazarenko's laboratory has shown that Tspan8 affects EV content and mediates the EVs’ function in metastasis and angiogenesis. These data suggest that Tspan8 may be a promising therapeutic target in cancer.Login Or Register To Read Full Story