This project will be mainly based on stem cells and virus-concerned experiments. Aim (1) Techniques for exosomes isolation and analysis；(2) Culture of stem cells；(3) Experiments of virus infection and detection.

This project will be focused on experiments related to exosome purification and characterization and provide technical guidance for cell culture and virus infection experiments. Exosomes (30–150 nm size) are extracellular lipid bilayer vesicles derived from cells for communication between cells. Exosomes can pack DNA, RNA, protein, lipids, and metabolites from cells and transfer them to target cells which is critical for homeostasis. Recent studies revealed that exosomes could regulate immune responses, fundamental physiological processes, and some biological functions, even for curing cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, research for exosomes is critical.

To allow students to understand relative experiments and the application of exosomes, students will extract exosomes from saliva by ultracentrifugation and exosome isolation methods and analyze exosomes marker (For example, CD63, TSG101, Alix, and Rab27a) through western blot to confirm whether exosomes are in saliva. At the same time, students will use NTA to detect nanoparticle concentration of saliva samples compared to western blot. On the other hand, we will add experimental direction for stem cell research in this project. Stem cells are prevalent in regenerative medicine and widely used in cell therapy and tissue regeneration. Based on recent studies, exosomes derived from stem cells act as stem cell therapy. This is why exosomes play a critical role in regenerative medicine. Students will learn about cell culture and the application of stem cells. Some research teams discovered that exosomes could be a remedy for virus diseases.

Due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2019, virus research has been considered necessary, and training virology research talents is essential. We will teach students to understand the analysis of virus infection and viral expressions such as RT-PCR, western blot, and plaque assay to train techniques for virus experiments. Next, students will use exosomes to treat cells and investigate the influence of virus infection. This project hopes that students can practice the isolation and application of exosomes, stem cell culture, and virus infection experiments to establish a foundation for future research and development in the medical field.