Institute for Experimental and Clinical Cell Therapy
Research Projects

A research team from the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Cell Therapy at Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in Salzburg has conducted an extensive study on a decade of vesicle research, analyzing 20,364 original articles. This represents the largest meta-analysis ever conducted in the field of vesicle research.

The team, led by Dr. Rodolphe Poupardin, Dr. Martin Wolf, Dr. Nicole Maeding, and institute head, Univ.-Prof. Dirk Strunk, identified and thoroughly analyzed all 20,364 original articles on extracellular vesicles (EV) published between 2013 and 2022 in the biomedical database PubMed, using a combination of 10 keywords and 3 medical terms.

Taking into account 1,32 x 10¹⁵⁵ possible keyword combinations, the results were visualized through machine learning in easily understandable graphical information landscapes and further broken down using correlation analysis. Conceptually relevant associations were identified in four categories: EV source, isolation, cargo, and function, leading to strategic conclusions for future research directions.

"We were able to demonstrate that the source of extracellular vesicles and the isolation method have a highly significant impact on the resulting function—a fact that many authors were previously unaware of. Surprisingly, commonly used methods like ultracentrifugation showed little correlation with positive functional data. This meta-analysis has the potential to revolutionize EV technology. Every intended application requires its own specific manufacturing process," said Prof. Dirk Strunk, head of the Institute of Experimental and Clinical Cell Therapy.

The team's work, "Advances in Extracellular Vesicle Research Over The Past Decade: Source And Isolation Method Are Connected with Cargo And Function," was published on January 25, 2024, in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials (Impact Factor: 10.0):
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adhm.202303941

Bones heal, but not always equally well or quickly. Each year, over a million people worldwide experience complications due to delayed or impaired bone fracture healing. The causes are varied, treatments can be lengthy, and success is not always guaranteed. Although several stem cell therapies are in clinical development, they have yet to deliver on their promises. Now, researchers at Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in Salzburg, in collaboration with experts from Charité in Berlin and other partners, have uncovered a new mechanism of epigenetic regulation in bone healing.

"Tissue regeneration success is driven by a complex network of enhancers, which are organ-specific regulators of gene expression," explains Univ.-Prof. Dirk Strunk, head of the Institute for Experimental and Clinical Cell Therapy at PMU. "For the first time, we have shown that only stem and progenitor cells from the musculoskeletal system possess the specific enhancer signatures required for complete bone healing."

These enhancers initiate the formation of the callus, a scar tissue precursor to healing, and guide the full regeneration of the fracture. Only after this process can the new bone be fully remodeled by the body’s cells. Stem cells from other tissues lack this critical enhancer mechanism.

"This discovery is a significant step toward selecting the right cells for effectively treating difficult-to-heal bone fractures. Understanding these organ-specific enhancer signatures will also help improve other stem cell therapies," Strunk adds.

The international research group's findings, titled “The enhancer landscape predetermines the skeletal regeneration capacity of stromal cells,” were published online on March 22, 2023, in the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine(Impact Factor 19.3):
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abm7477