InFLAMES Visiting Professor Aled Clayton from Cardiff University is now in Turku and during his stay he will meet and discuss with the students and colleagues. Thursday October 6 at 12:00 he will give A Frontiers on Science lecture titled How do extracellular vesicles work. The lecture is on-site event and it takes place at Presidentti auditorium, BioCity.

Professor Clayton is part of the Tissue Microenvironment Group, School of Medicine, Cardiff University which is a collection of diverse and international researchers with a multidisciplinary approach to science.

His specialist interest involves studies of cell-derived vesicles which is now a rapidly growing and exciting area of biology. He has published well over 70 papers, most in relation to vesicles, their roles in subverting immune responses and in controlling the cancer microenvironment as well as potential disease biomarkers.

Although Professor Claytons’ main focus is in cancer biology, he collaborates broadly with researchers in Cardiff including those in the schools of dentistry, engineering and optometry, and interacts with other universities on aspects including cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and other conditions that impact our society in significant ways.

People are getting into vesicles because they are an exciting, expanding and evolving area and the field offers lots to find out and lots of the learn, Aled Clayton says.

– Extracellular vesicles are fundamental to biological systems across kingdoms. So regardless of your disease speciality, paying a little bit of attention to cell derived vesicles would deliver a lot of insights and information to your topic or area.

Cell communication is the key word both for immunology, tissue microenvironments  and vesicle research.

– Immunology is all about cell-to-cell communication, so the immune system has to be coordinated and orchestrated. How do the cells do this? Sometimes cells contact each other and exchange information or they make small molecular factors that are sent off to deliver instructions. Vesicle represent a halfway house encompassing contact and “soluble” factors so they can transfer complex  information at long distances. The immune system, and tissue regulation needs this level of sophisticated communication in order to work well.

To young researchers Clayton has an important message.

 – When I did my PhD I was very naïve. I did not know how the science world works and what I wanted to do next. I´m keen to help your youngsters to get streetwise in the industry of science and find their place; the place that best suits their personality and skills. You have to be happy in your career, life is too short not be, and everyone has a valuable contribution to make to understanding Nature.