Group Members

  • Milica Popović, PhD, associate professor, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Chemistry
  • Lidija Filipović, researcher, Innovation center of the Faculty of Chemistry
  • Nevena Zelenović, PhD student
  • Marija Tursunović, graduate researcher
  • Jovana Terzić, graduate researcher

[Image No. 655]

Research Area

Exosomes (EVs) are cell-derived vesicles present in many body fluids (blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid) ranging in size from 30 to 150 nm. They play a key role in many physiological and pathological conditions such as coagulation, intercellular signalling, immune suppression and inflammation, tumour growth and metastasis (1). EVs present in bodily fluids are considered as a unique source of clinically relevant and non-invasive biomarkers. Therefore, exosomes have been proposed as the preferential material for liquid biopsy in order to evaluate disease prognosis and therapeutic choices (2).

Nevertheless, the present exosome isolation approaches are very inefficient in terms of purity and profiling capacity. Therefore, standardized purification and characterization methods would critically improve the quality of the diagnostic information. In this perspective, immunoaffinity based exosome sub-class discrimination and purification would therefore represent a major advancement in the field because relevant biomarkers transported by EVs (ncRNA, mRNA, proteins) could be selectively enriched (2). So far this approach has been prevented by the limited knowledge relative to the membrane-displayed antigens specifically expressed in different EV subpopulations. Immuno-affinity based methods for exosome purification have been shown to be effective for purification of cancer-related exosomes from blood of cancer patients, promoting the diagnostic values of this type of approach (3). We aim to engineer research grade antibodies into clinical and biotechnological grade tools for the use in non-invasive diagnostic and routine R&D laboratory applications. One of the main objectives of the group is to set-up a robust immune-affinity based approach for capturing exosomes from pathological samples and utilizing them for further development of non-invasive diagnostic tools.

  1. van der Pol E, Boing AN, Harrison P, Sturk A, Nieuwland R. Classification, functions, and clinical relevance of extracellular vesicles. Pharmacological reviews 2012, 64(3): 676-705.
  2. Popović M, de Marco A. Canonical and selective approaches in exosome purification and their implications for diagnostic accuracy. Translational Cancer Research 2017, S209-S25.
  3. Mizutani K, Terazawa R, Kameyama K, Kato T, Horie K, Tsuchiya T, et al. Isolation of prostate cancer-related exosomes. Anticancer Res. 2014, 34(7): 3419-23.

[Image No. 653]

https://instagram.com/extracellular.vesicles_lab412?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng==

Equipment Used by the Group

The group uses facilities for cell culture, molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology, biotechnology, protein purification and characterization.

Publications

  1. Filipović L, Spasojević M, Prodanović R, Korać A, Matijaševic S, Brajušković G, de Marco A, Popović M: Affinity-based isolation of extracellular vesicles by means of single-domain antibodies bound to macroporous methacrylate-based copolymer. New Biotechnology (2022), 69:36-48.
  2. Filipović L, Kojadinović M, Popović M: Exosomes and exosome-mimetics as targeted drug carriers: Where we stand and what the future holds? Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology (2022), 68.
  3. Popovic M, Mazzega E, Toffoletto B, de Marco A: Isolation of anti-extra-cellular vesicle single-domain antibodies by direct panning on vesicle-enriched fractions. Microbial cell factories (2018), 17:6.
  4. Popovic M, de Marco A: Canonical and selective approaches in exosome purification and their implications for diagnostic accuracy. Translational Cancer Research (2018), 7:S209-S225.
  5. Andjelković U, Tufegdžić S, Popović M: Use of monolithic supports for high-throughput protein and peptide separation in proteomics. Electrophoresis (2017), 38:2851-2869.

Partners

  • Dr Ario de Marco, University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
  • Dr Goran Brajušković, University of Belgrade - Faculty of Biology
  • Dr Milena Čavić, Institute for Oncology and Radiology Serbia
  • Dr Milica Kojadinović, Institute of Medical reseach

Projects

Project coordinator:

  • Advancing REversible immunocapture toward SCALablE EV purification (RESCALE-EV), Science Fund Republic of Serbia 2023-2026
  • CEEPUS network CIII-RS-1310-01-1920 (Umbrella) "Advanced Trends in Education and Research of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology of Macromolecules" - Network Coordinator 
  • "Isolation of recombinant nanobodies specific for exosome subclasses" (international project) Ministry of Science and Technological Development (Belgrade, Serbia)

Project researcher:

  • 172049 "Allergens, antibodies, enzymes and small physiologically relevant molecules: design, structure, function and significance" - Ministry of Science and Technological Development (Belgrade, Serbia)
  • COST Action FA1402 (5) "Improving Allergy Risk Assessment Strategy for New Food Proteins (ImpARAS)" - international project - European Union (Brusseles, Belgium)
  • COST Action CA15126 "Between Atom and Cell: Integrating Molecular Biophysics Approaches for Biology and Healthcare (MOBIEU)" - international project - European Union (Brusseles, Belgium)
  • INTERREG PROTEO - Cross-border Cooperation Programme Italia - Slovenia, 2012-2015.