Prof. An Hendrix receives prestigious early/mid-career achievement award for her pioneering work in the field of extracellular vesicles

Recently, CRIG group leader Prof. An Hendrix received a special award by the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), acknowledging her important and milestone contributions to this young research field.

An Hendrix pioneered in the EV research field by developing a supporting ecosystem to mature EV into clinical applications. First, her research group created the EV-TRACK knowledgebase and launched the EV-TRACK coaching tool to stimulate transparency and steer reproducibility (Van Deun et al., Nat Methods, 2017). It’s use is endorsed by ISEV and included in the minimal information guidelines for EV. Second, her research group designed and patented recombinant EV, that are easily trackable and distinguishable from sample EV, to support instrument calibration and data normalization (Geeurickx et al., Nat Comm, 2019). Third, they established reproducible protocols to separate EV from other interfering particles in body fluids (Tulkens et al., Nat Protoc, 2020). This supporting ecosystem has steered the research group towards the discovery of systemic bacterial EVs (BEV) in non-septicemic patients with intestinal barrier dysfunction, including cancer patients (Tulkens et al., Gut, 2020).

Congratulations!