All of the activities below are made available at the discretion of Midlands Innovation Health, the Midlands Innovation Extracellular Vesicles Network (MIEVN) and its members. If you would like to discuss one or more of these activities, please get in touch.
With support of Midlands Innovation Health, the MIEVN and its partner institutions, we are able to offer the following opportunities:
Below are some examples of different types of past events, as well as current opportunities available (marked OPEN) and details of commitments where required.
Scroll down for industry-led training opportunities.
We are delighted to announce we will be returning in 2027 with our hugely successful Extracellular Vesicles Conference.
This in-person one day conference will bring together over 100 students and academics from across the 8 MI universities (and wider), as well as our colleagues from the local respective Biotech and CRO communities, to discuss all things extracellular vesicles. Come along to learn about the technology, hear something new in the field or present your research.
This conference is open to all researchers with an interest in extracellular vesicles, including those wanting to learn more about this exciting and rapidly expanding field. All are welcome, including Principal Investigators, Post-doctoral scientists, Technicians, Early Career researchers (including PhD / Masters students) and Industry representatives.
The Early Carer Researcher Offer – Are you an ECR working in the EV space? We would be delighted to showcase your work via a poster, conference presentation or both for free. Get in touch to recieve the call for abstracts form.
The Industry Offer – We would be delighted to have you on board sponsoring this event to access the unique and specialist audience that the conference draws in. The space available will allow great networking opportunities between yourself and delegates. You will also be able to attend the conference itself, with the meeting including talks from leading academics and early career researchers, as well as company representatives, with a unified aim of providing technically and academically stimulating events.
We are looking for sponsorship to cover the cost of the conferences – £850 (+VAT) will secure a stall at the event venue, a 5-minute Technobite presentation, as well as a company logo on all promotional material. If you would like to be involved or want to discuss other sponsorship options, please do not hesitate to reach out. Also included in this package is the potential to run a bespoke in-person industry-led training session at a network partner university in the year following the conference at cost – typically only catering depending on requirements (see below).
With a particular focus on showcasing early career researchers (both through presentations and posters) and industry-led research, the conference was split into three sessions – each with ECR and industry speakers – and concluded with a showcase keynote presentation from Professor Charlotte Lawson (University of Lancashire): ‘Functional effects of dietary derived extracellular particles on human inflammatory responses in vitro’. Read the full agenda.
The event featured tailor-made workshops from Beckman Coulter to demonstrate the capabilities of their latest equipment – the CytoFLEX nano, as well as exhibitions from Analytik, Cytiva, Cytek Biosciences Ltd, BGI Genomics, Fisher Scientific, Malvern Panalytical, Secretech, Sony Europe BV, Upper Biotech.
The inaugural (half day) virtual conference focussed on ‘Health and Inflammation’ and provided an opportunity for presentations, discussions, and conversations around this exciting and growing area of EV research.
Intro & Session 1: Methods, models and analysis (Watch Now)
■ Dr Vicky James (University of Nottingham) ■ Dr Saskia Bakker (University of Warwick)
■ Thomas Page (Aston University) ■ Davis Tucis (University of Nottingham)
Session 2: The industry view (Watch Now)
■ Dr Dimitri Aubert (Vesiculab) ■ Dr Rob Tempest (NanoFCM)
■ Harry Newberry (Cell Guidance Systems) ■ Dr James Gavin (Evolution Therapeutics)
Session 3: EVs in Immunology (Watch Now)
■ Dr Ivana Milic (Aston University) ■ Nancy Gomez (University of Nottingham)
■ Amon Hackney (De Montfort University) ■ Rachel Butler (Aston University)
The following offers will be available throughout the year:
WHY HOST AN ANALYTIK DAY?
• Showcase cutting-edge analytical technologies
• Bring together researchers across disciplines
• Provide educational seminars for new technologies
• Enable hands-on instrument demonstrations
• Encourage collaboration across Midlands Innovation institutions
The Midlands EV Network was delighted to deliver an intensive 3-hour virtual workshop that guided attendees through the entire pathway of analysing EV Transcriptomics.
Registration was open regionally, nationally and international and saw a fantastic attendance from 12 countries. Suitable for researchers (including early career researchers), technicians and research development staff, this event enabled the better understanding of the process through which EV RNA cargo, cell-to-cell communication, disease states, and cellular origins can be identified.
Open regionally, nationally and internationally, the event saw attendees from 12 different countries and included representatives from academia, industry and healthcare.
The session, led by MIEVN Chair Professor Lucy Fairclough (Professor of Immunology, University of Nottingham) highlighted the importance of collaborating in this critical area of study that has fundamentally changed our understanding of how cells communicate.
13:00-13:10 – Welcome address
Professor Lucy Fairclough, Professor of Immunology and Chair of MIEVN, University of Nottingham
13:10-13:40 – How to prepare your sample: Tips, tricks and pit falls to avoid
Dr Georgina Hopkins, Research Fellow in Immunology, University of Nottingham
Dr Joshua Price, NIHR BRC Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Birmingham
13:40-14:10 – Where to send your samples – Industry showcase
Dr Matthias Hackl, Co-founder and CEO, TAmiRNA – Decoding Extracellular Vesicle Cargo by RNA Sequencing for Biomarker Discovery and EV-Based Therapeutics
Qin Xiang, Product Manager, BGI Genomics – Unlocking the Functional Secrets of EVs: A High-Sensitivity Small RNA-Seq Solution
Open discussion of the experience of working with different providers
14:10-14:40 – Transcriptomic analysis of small extracellular vesicles in metastatic breast cancer
Dr Emmanuel Acheampong, Lecture in Cancer Precision Medicine, University of Leicester
14:40-15:00 – Short break
15:00-15:30 – Extracellular Vesicle miRNAs: Moving Beyond Detection to Functional Insight
Professor Victoria James, Professor of Molecular Biology, University of Nottingham
15:30-15:50 – Opportunities for regional collaboration
Open discussion led by Professor Fairclough
15:50-16:00 – Closing remarks
