UCLA alumnus, Nobel laureate speaks on cells, open-access research | Daily Bruin

"A UCLA alumnus and Nobel laureate shared his latest research on RNA sorting into exosomes at a seminar Wednesday. More than 250 people packed into an auditorium in Geffen Hall to listen to Randy Schekman, who shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a set of genes required for intracellular transportation of molecules in sacs called vesicles. At the seminar, Schekman spoke about his lab’s research on exosomes, which are vesicles released by cells, and his support of publicly accessible research.

Exosomes contain materials that some researchers believe might convey messages from one cell to another, he said. For example, cancer cells could secrete exosomes to promote cell and blood vessel growth, which facilitate tumor progression.

Schekman said his lab at UC Berkeley has developed a method to better isolate exosomes from cells to examine their contents. The researchers found that some RNA molecules are hundreds or thousands of times more concentrated in exosomes than in the cells they come from...."