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Clupper came to UD for graduate school and began working on a project
in Tanis’ lab involving a protein potentially linked to Alzheimer’s
disease. When he discovered the protein packaged into EVs, his research
shifted its focus to this new area — and a new skill he’s developed in
working with the Bioimaging Center’s instruments.
“Few research institutions have the means to image EVs,” Clupper
said. “We’re very fortunate at UD. The generalized term for these scopes
is ‘super-resolution microscopes’ because they let you image down to a
single molecule level.”
He and Tanis praised the assistance they’ve received from Jeffrey
Caplan, the imaging center director, and his staff as they learned and
fine-tuned their work with the instruments.
“We’ve had so much support and help,” Tanis said. “And this project
wouldn’t be possible without Mike’s persistence in optimizing the
complex imaging and analysis techniques.”
The biggest technical obstacle lies in the size of the EVs being studied.
“Imaging EVs is so challenging because of how small they are and how
difficult it can be to reliably label them [with fluorescence] in a way
that makes them visible to microscopes,” said Clupper, who now helps
train other members of the research team in the imaging techniques he
uses. “One of the challenges with pioneering work like this is that
there isn’t really a manual or protocol; you have to figure it out
yourself.”
Ultimately, he said, he hopes the work will pave the way for other EV
researchers to use some of the tools and methods that the lab has
developed as they explore new avenues of investigation.
And a great deal of research is being conducted on EVs, Tanis said.
Scientists see potential for using them as biomarkers to diagnose
disease and for engineering them to carry genetic cargo and drugs to
targets within the body as an innovative therapeutic approach.
Article by Ann Manser; photo by Timothy Chaya
Published Feb. 3, 2021