Associate Professor Joy Wolfram’s research is focused on extracellular vesicles. Extracellular vesicles are molecular packages that the cells in our body send to each other to communicate. These packages contain thousands of different molecules that together block disease-causing mechanisms. The packages also have a molecular GPS to reach the right recipient.
Because every organ and cell in the body is in close contact with the blood, all types of extracellular vesicles can be found in the blood. Wolfram’s research program uses blood from healthy donors as a large library of extracellular vesicles, each with a unique set of instructions (molecular coding) to reach a
specific location in the body. Wolfram’s team is finding the right extracellular vesicles and further engineering them to maximise therapeutic effects. This new paradigm of therapeutics has promising potential to outperform conventional medicines due to multi-molecular and multi-functional properties, including specificity. The Wolfram team is developing extracellular vesicle therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and kidney disease.