Charlotte Volgers received NRS Travel Grant

As a PhD student at the department of Medical Microbiology at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, I am currently working on a project that focuses on intracellular communication via the release of Extracellular  Vesicles (EVs) during infection by Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi).
The field of EV-oriented research is relatively young and is highly dynamic. It is therefore that the annual conference organized by the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) forms excellent opportunity to stay informed.
This years’ conference addressed recent developments on the involvement of EVs in various physiological processes and diseases tools for working with EVs. The session “EVs and microorganisms” offered several lectures related to my research. Especially the lecture by Pamela Wearsch (Cleveland, Ohio) on vesicle release by Mycobacterium tuberculosis infected cells provided with new insights that enable to work with a mixed (bacterial and host-cell derived) vesicle population. During this conference I was also given the opportunity to present my poster. This allowed me to discuss my findings with other researchers that are currently working on EV release during infection or vesicle release in the context of airway inflammation.
Overall, I experienced the participation in the ISEV meeting as useful and important as I learned about the latest developments in the field and was given the opportunity to present my own data. Also I experienced the Networking event and other opportunities that were given to talk with other researchers and experts in the field as extremely helpful.