Evidence-Based Clinical Use of Nanoscale Extracellular Vesicles in Nanomedicine.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), such as exosomes and microvesicles, are released by different cell types and participate in physiological and pathophysiological processes. EVs mediate intercellular communication as cell-derived extracellular signalling organelles that transmit specific information from their cell of origin to their target cells. As a result of these properties, EVs of defined cell types may serve as novel tools for various therapeutic approaches, including (a) anti-tumour therapy, (b) pathogen vaccination, (c) immune-modulatory and regenerative therapies and (d) drug delivery. The translation of EVs into clinical therapies requires the categorization of EV-based therapeutics in compliance with existing regulatory frameworks. As the classification defines subsequent requirements for manufacturing, quality control and clinical investigation, it is of major importance to define whether EVs are considered the active drug components or primarily serve as drug delivery vehicles. For an effective and particularly safe translation of EV-based therapies into clinical practice, a high level of cooperation between researchers, clinicians and competent authorities is essential. In this position statement, basic and clinical scientists, as members of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) and of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) program of the European Union, namely European Network on Microvesicles and Exosomes in Health and Disease (ME-HaD), summarize recent developments and the current knowledge of EV-based therapies. Aspects of safety and regulatory requirements that must be considered for pharmaceutical manufacturing and clinical application are highlighted. Production and quality control processes are discussed. Strategies to promote the therapeutic application of EVs in future clinical studies are addressed.

In the past decade, significant resources have been invested in long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) research. Despite the knowledge available, we are far from incorporation of lncRNA into clinical practice. Here, we emphasize the technical challenges in the field, hoping to provoke a response leading to new consensus and guidelines.

Since the late nineteenth century when high-cost equipment was introduced into forestry there has been a need to calculate the cost of this equipment in more detail with respect to, for example, cost of ownership, cost per hour of production, and cost per production unit. Machine cost calculations have been made using various standard economic methods, where costs have been subdivided into capital costs and operational costs. Because of differences between methods and between national regulations, mainly regarding tax rules and subsidies, international comparisons of machine costs are difficult. To address this, one of the goals of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action FP0902 was to establish a simple format for transparent cost calculations for machines in the forest biomass procurement chain. A working group constructed a Microsoft Excel–based spreadsheet model which is easy to understand and use. Input parameters are easy to obtain or possible to estimate by provided rules of thumb. The model gives users a simultaneous view of the input parameters and the resulting cost outputs. This technical note presents the model, explains how the calculations are made, and provides future users with a guide on how to use the model. Prospective users can view the model in the Supplementary Material linked to this article online.

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COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is the oldest intergovernmental funding organization in Europe with the aim to establish the research networks among scientists and innovators. It has become one of the greatest mechanisms for promoting international scientific cooperation in recent decades, with a considerable influence on the careers of young researchers. Proximity is highly critical for establishing scientific collaboration, but once established, scientists may maintain collaboration even across long distances. Participating in a COST Action, in this sense, fosters closeness by allowing scientists from various nations, research fields, and industries to meet and thereby overcome conventional boundaries (Seeber et al. 2022a). A particular focus of COST network is to assist early-career investigators and young scientists in developing new skills by providing opportunities to get involved in Action activities such as training schools, short- term scientific missions, workshops, conferences, etc. (Mijić and Marinković, 2024). In this paper the impact of participating in a COST Action on the level of scientific production of researchers coming from less-research-intensive COST Member countries,known as Inclusive Target Countries (ITC), will be presented. Some recent studies demonstrate a notable average increase in scientific co-publications among active action members, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations, and an increased involvement of early career researchers (Seeber et al. 2022b). COST Actions continue to have a favorable impact on young researchers' careers even after they are terminated. Participation in COST activities has become progressively competitive, with researchers from Serbia accounting for more than 90% of running Actions (Mijić and Marinković, 2022). To ensure effective participation in COST Actions, information on both new national and COST procedures will be provided and discussed, as well as an overview of currently available positions in running COST Actions.

We report a European wide assessment of the economic burden of gastrointestinal nematodes, Fasciola hepatica (common liver fluke) and Dictyocaulus viviparus (bovine lungworm) infections to the ruminant livestock industry. The economic impact of these parasitic helminth infections was estimated by a deterministic spreadsheet model as a function of the proportion of the ruminant population exposed to grazing, the infection frequency and intensity, the effect of the infection on animal productivity and mortality and anthelmintic treatment costs. In addition, we estimated the costs of anthelmintic resistant nematode infections and collected information on public research budgets addressing helminth infections in ruminant livestock. The epidemiologic and economic input data were collected from international databases and via expert opinion of the Working Group members of the European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) action COMbatting Anthelmintic Resistance in ruminants (COMBAR). In order to reflect the effects of uncertainty in the input data, low and high cost estimates were obtained by varying uncertain input data arbitrarily in both directions by 20 %. The combined annual cost [low estimate-high estimate] of the three helminth infections in 18 participating countries was estimated at € 1.8 billion [€ 1.0–2.7 billion]. Eighty-one percent of this cost was due to lost production and 19 % was attributed to treatment costs. The cost of gastrointestinal nematode infections with resistance against macrocyclic lactones was estimated to be € 38 million [€ 11–87 million] annually. The annual estimated costs of helminth infections per sector were € 941 million [€ 488 – 1442 million] in dairy cattle, € 423 million [€ 205–663 million] in beef cattle, € 151million [€ 90–213 million] in dairy sheep, € 206 million [€ 132–248 million] in meat sheep and € 86 million [€ 67–107 million] in dairy goats. Important data gaps were present in all phases of the calculations which lead to large uncertainties around the estimates. Accessibility of more granular animal population datasets at EU level, deeper knowledge of the effects of infection on production, levels of infection and livestock grazing exposure across Europe would make the largest contribution to improved burden assessments. The known current public investment in research on helminth control was 0.15 % of the estimated annual costs for the considered parasitic diseases. Our data suggest that the costs of enzootic helminth infections which usually occur at high prevalence annually in ruminants, are similar or higher than reported costs of epizootic diseases. Our data can support decision making in research and policy to mitigate the negative impacts of helminth infections and anthelmintic resistance in Europe, and provide a baseline against which to measure future changes.

As the oldest intergovernmental funding organization in Europe COST (the European Cooperation in Science and Technology) facilitates networking among academics and innovators in order to increase Europe's ability to address scientific, technical, and societal concerns (Marinković and Mijić 2022). According to the study (Seeber et al., 2022a), participation in COST program considerably increases researchers' scientific co-publications, therefore advancing their professional careers. The findings demonstrate a 55% average increase in co-publications among active COST action participants as compared to the proposed network of the researchers of non-founded actions. This increase in collaborative co- publications is not at the expense of non-collaborative ones, resulting in a net gain in scientific production. Keeping in mind that the impact of the actions lasts beyond their lifetime, involvement in COST networking activities significantly improves researchers' productions and experience thus increasing their capacity for long-term collaborations (Seeber et al., 2022b). This is especially important for early-career researchers, as around 42% of COST action members in 2023 are young researchers. (Mijić and Marinković, 2024a).Over the last several years running the COST action have become more and more competitive (Mijić and Marinković, 2024b). The reported success rate of the action proposals for the last open call OC-2023-1 was 11.5%. Since there is a clear benefit of scientific community involved in research network, several European countries established additional national funding to support research projects originating from successful ongoing COST Actions.In this study, within proposed mini-project, we will discuss the new opportunities for COST participants through the actions networking tools focusing on young researchers’ and ITC (Inclusiveness Target Countries) conference grants entering into force in November 2024. In addition, new technical annex, ... - FULL TEXT available in PDF.

<p>The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) has a very important role in fostering the establishment of scientific excellence in many fields such as: Geoscience, Planetary and Environment. Over the years, COST Actions have contributed to European competitiveness through their many contributions to standardisation bodies, the small to medium enterprises originating from COST networks and the transfer of results to the European industry.</p><p>A series of COST Actions in the field of Meteorology developed global data transfer standards on the basis of infra-networks in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization advantaging the competitiveness of the industrial participation. Such achievements include harmonisation of UV-index, developing operational programmes, services, networks and phenological responses to climate on a Pan-European Scale and were recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is another good example as a result of an Action through its evolution to become an independent intergovernmental organisation with its own structure and headquarters supported by 34 states.</p><p>The key findings of COST networks not only contribute to the atmospheric drivers on the impacts of the global change but also increase the understanding of the function of marine ecosystems and its response to climate change. A number of Actions in the field of marine science have developed observing system to integrate the dynamic response of sea-level variations to combine effects of various natural drivers into multi-criteria tools by bringing together oceanographers and meteorologists. These developments urged for an integrated implementation of technology in sea-level monitoring, and for further international agreements on data storage and exchange.</p><p>A wide range of disciplines, evaluating the complex interactions between the oceans and the global change, geosciences, natural resources management, environmental monitoring, biogeochemical cycles,  ecology, hydrology, natural disasters, water cycle have well undertaken through COST Action networks. The results were published in high impact journals, guidelines were represented in position papers leading to new research projects on a global scale.  Participation in COST leads to significant results and follow-up in terms of number of proposals submitted for collaborative research in Horizon 2020, with a striking success rate of 33% (the Horizon 2020 average is at 12.2%). By enabling researchers and innovators from all career levels to network, COST connects complementary funding schemes, facilitating the entry of promising young talents into these schemes.</p><p>COST is committed to reinforcing its role as the leading networking instrument in the European Research Area (ERA), while creating even higher tangible impact on society.</p>

In this Guest Editorial the recently funded COST Action: CA18112 – Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry (MechSustInd) is introduced to the scientific community. The use of mechanical energy to facilitate chemical transformations (mechanochemistry) has been rapidly gaining momentum across diverse areas of science. Experimentally, the strategies to mechanically promote physico-chemical changes in matter are varied and include the use of mechanical milling, extrusion techniques, pulsed ultrasonication, and single-molecule force-spectroscopy approaches, among others. Altogether, the implementation of these experimental techniques has resulted in the discovery of new chemical reactions and in the development of more sustainable alternatives to classical synthetic protocols. Collectively, the renaissance and thriving growth of mechanochemistry with its potential to enhance chemical synthesis have been recently acknowledged by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).1 Simultaneously, in 2019, one of the most prestigious and influential funding organizations for research and innovation networks in Europe, the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST),2 funded the COST Action: CA18112 – Mechanochemistry for Sustainable Industry (MechSustInd).3 This will provide a unique opportunity for scientific and technological growth in the area of mechanochemistry across Europe. As such, we are pleased to celebrate as well as to introduce the MechSustInd COST Action in this Editorial. The first steps towards a successful COST Action have already begun. To date, MechSustInd encompasses partners from 33 COST Member Countries, including 18 Inclusiveness Target Countries and partners, nine companies, one European intergovernmental scientific research organization (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, ESRF), as well as partners from Canada, China, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, and USA. In total, represented by 72 Academic Institutions across Europe and around the world (Figure 1). During its lifespan, the COST Action CA18112 MechSustInd will enhance the cooperation of scientists already working in the field, but more importantly it will promote the translation of mechanochemistry into alternative niche sectors. For instance, efforts will be devoted to disseminate and train fundamental aspects of mechanochemistry and mechanochemical techniques within higher education and vocational training settings. Additionally, all members of this COST Action CA18112 will aim to develop mechanochemical synthetic routes of value-added products from laboratory-scale set-ups to large-scale production. This quest will be closely accompanied by physico-chemical and computational studies to better understand the mechanistic aspects prevailing in such mechanochemical transformations. Important to the success of implementing mechanochemical protocols in industry is the development of new mechanochemical techniques to complement existing strategies for the activation of reactants by mechanical treatment. More ambitious targets for MechSustInd also lie ahead, namely, the establishment of fruitful multi-disciplinary collaborative networks involving researchers from a myriad of academic institutions and industries. These networks will share the common objective of harmonizing both fundamental and applied research for industrial needs and fostering technological transfer from research laboratories to industrial value chains. Furthermore, to increase the potential impact of this COST Action, we will engage with key stakeholders to gain awareness of the current developments in policy making, business strategies, and societal needs. Moreover, we wish to use this Editorial to encourage proactive participation of all scientists, educators (schools and universities), engineers, industrial partners, policy- and decision-makers, and funding bodies alike to successfully achieve the objectives of COST Action CA18112 MechSustInd. Undoubtedly, vital for the achievement of this COST Action's objectives will be the use of more focused networking programs such as Short-Term Scientific Missions aimed at fostering collaboration via excellent research infrastructures and sharing techniques amongst the members of MechSustInd. Equally important will be the organization of Training Schools to standardize, propagate, and encourage the adoption of good experimental practices across the current and future mechanochemistry scientific community. Hence, established scientists will work together with Early Career Investigators to promote the scientific excellence within the field whilst maintaining gender balance within the network. Overall, we hope that in the upcoming years, the COST Action MechSustInd will become an inflexion point in the expansion, diversification, and establishment of mechanochemistry in a wide range of fields such as organic chemistry, organometallic synthesis, solid-state chemistry, spectroscopy, molecular modeling, process engineering, and crystal engineering, to name a few. Let the coming chemistry years be mechanical! This article is based upon work from COST Action CA18112, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).

We thank Zhang and colleagues for their Letter to the Editor (1) regarding our work (2). Our manuscript ("Liver Metastases of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: Implications for an Updated Staging System"(2)), suggested changes to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging classification for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), by classifying "liver metastases" as stage IV rather than stage II/III in the absence/presence of lymph node metastases, respectively, as per AJCC v.8 (3).

Biophysical Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding organisation for research and innovation networks. One of the objectives of the COSTAction called “Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections“ (MOBILISE) is to work on documents for expert training with broad involvement of professionals from the participating European countries. The guideline presented here in its general concept will address principles, strategies and standards for long term preservation and archiving of data constructs (data packages, data products) as addressed by and under control of the scientific collections community. The document is being developed as part of the MOBILISE Action targeted towards primarily scientific staff at natural scientific collection facilities, as well as management bodies of collections like museums, herbaria and information technology personnel less familiar with data archiving principles and routines. The challenges of big data storage and (distributed, cloud-based) storage solutions as well as that of data mirroring, backing up, synchronisation and publication in productive data environments are well addressed by documents, guidelines and online platforms, e.g., in the DISSCo knowledge base (see Hardisty et al. (2020)) and as part of concepts of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Archival processes and the resulting data constructs, however, are often left outside of the considerations. This is a large gap because archival issues are not only simple technical ones as addressed by the term “bit preservation” but also envisage a number of logical, functional, normative, administrative and semantic issues as addressed by the term “functional long-term archiving”. The main target digital object types addressed by this COST MOBILISE Guideline are data constructs called Digital or Digital Extended Specimens and data products with the persistent identifier assignment lying under the authority of scientific collections facilities. Such digital objects are specified according to the Digital Object Architecture (DOA , see Wittenburg et al. 2018) and similar abstract models introduced by Harjes et al. (2020) and Lannom et al. (2020). The scientific collection-specific types are defined following evolving concepts in the context of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), the research infrastructure DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections), and the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). Archival processes are described following the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model. The archived objects should be reusable in the sense of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) guiding principles. Organisations like national (digital) archives, computing or professional (domain-specific) data centers as well as libraries might offer specific archiving services and act as partner organisations of scientific collections facilities. The guideline consists of key messages that have been defined. They address the collection community, especially the staff and leadership of taxonomic facilities. Aspects of several groups of stakeholders are discussed as well as cost models. The guideline does not recommend specific solutions for archiving software and workflows. Supplementary information is delivered via a wiki-based platform for the COST MOBILISE Archiving Working Group WG4.

Harmonia is a COST Action funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology. It deals with networking and scientific activities related with columnar aerosol measurements and involves scientists dealing with measurements, model assimilation , satellite validation but also software and instrument developers. The scope of the presentation is to provide an overview of the global status of aerosol sun photometer networks and the homogenization activities performed towards reducing spatiotemporal aerosol properties uncertainties.Harmonia COST Action aims to establish a network involving institutions, instrument developers, scientific and commercial end users, in order to homogenize aerosol retrievals using mainly solar and sky but also lunar and star photometers from different networks. It aims bridging user needs and the science and technology expertise residing in academia and industry, through:- Increasing the interactions and knowledge exchanges between several atmospheric aerosol measurement networks.- Standardizing and improving of existing products and tools, toward a “harmony” in the aerosol photometry.- Stimulating the communication between operational agencies and academia, increasing the applicability of aerosol related products.- Capacity building towards instrument operators on improving the use of solar, lunar and stellar radiometry/photometry instrumentation.- Encouraging the dialogue between researchers and instrument manufacturers towards instrument technical improvements.The presentation aims to provide an overview of the current methods to measure aerosol columnar properties from the surface and also an overview of the homogenization activities towards better ground-based products towards better representation of the aerosol field and aerosol effects on climate, model assimilation and satellite validation. Including:- The current state of the art of instrument calibration including project results towards establishing a traceability to the SI system of units,- Aerosol sun photometric networks` common international comparison towards measurement homogenization- The status of the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS), Calibration of aerosol remote sensing and links to HarmoniaAcknowledgementThis research has been supported by the This article/publication is based upon work from COST Action HARMONIA, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) . 

MARCH 16, 2022; This Book of Abstract is based upon Online Conference of COST Action 17140 „Cancer nanomedicine - from the bench to the bedside“ Nano2Clinic, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. https://www.nano2clinic.eu/1st-STSM-online-conference

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death worldwide and, despite continuous advances, better diagnostic and prognostic tools, as well as therapy, are needed. The human transcriptome, which is the set of all RNA produced in a cell, is much more complex than previously thought and the lack of dialogue between researchers and industrials and consensus on guidelines to generate data make it harder to compare and reproduce results. This European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action aims to accelerate the understanding of transcriptomics in CVD and further the translation of experimental data into usable applications to improve personalized medicine in this field by creating an interdisciplinary network. It aims to provide opportunities for collaboration between stakeholders from complementary backgrounds, allowing the functions of different RNAs and their interactions to be more rapidly deciphered in the cardiovascular context for translation into the clinic, thus fostering personalized medicine and meeting a current public health challenge. Thus, this Action will advance studies on cardiovascular transcriptomics, generate innovative projects, and consolidate the leadership of European research groups in the field. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding organization for research and innovation networks (www.cost.eu).