Professor Cha Jae-min of the Department of Bio-Robot System Engineering and Kang Woo-young, a researcher of the Department of Bio-Robot System Engineering

Researchers at Incheon National University's Bio-Robot System Engineering Department Organizational Engineering Laboratory (supervisor: Cha Jae-min) said they have optimized the composition of a freeze-drying protective agent specialized in the freeze-drying of extracellular vesicles and developed a freeze-drying process using it.

The research team rehydrated the freeze-dried stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles to confirm that their original characteristics and therapeutic efficacy were restored normally. This enables convenient storage and distribution of extracellular vesicle drugs, thereby enhancing the convenience and economy of application of stem cell-derived extracellular vesicle treatments. 

This technology is expected to greatly contribute to the benefit of stem cell therapy efficacy for more patients.

This study was conducted in industry-academia research cooperation with S&E Bio Inc., a company specializing in the development of stem cell-derived extracellular vesicle treatments, and was published on February 2 in Biomaterials Research (IF: 11.3, top 5.2% of JCR), an internationally renowned academic journal in biomedical and medical engineering.