New EV nucleus in northern Germany - The Hamburg EV community: A present reality with a promising future

On April 13-14th, 2023, more than 50 researchers located in Hamburg, mainly working at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), met to present research projects focusing on extracellular vesicles (EVs). The meeting was supported by State Research Funding (LFF-FV74: Mechanisms of cell communication in Infection; Speaker Maura Dandri, UKE), which aims to develop existing and promising research areas further. This meeting certainly surpassed all expectations: what was first organized as a tentative get-together between a dozen EV scientists, soon revealed the existence of a much broader and strong EV community with more than 50 basic researchers and clinicians currently active in Hamburg. This first UKE-EV meeting created a platform to share experiences, projects, and protocols and mainly discuss future requirements to create a consolidated structure and network in Hamburg, enabling state-of-the-art EV research.