Tetraspanins are transmembrane proteins which interact with many other partners and thus participate in number of cellular processes, including the ones connected with extracellular vesicles (EVs). EVs are tiny, membrane-enclosed structures actively secreted by cells to transfer proteins, lipids, and genetic material across diverse biological contexts.
The student will:
1) create a comprehensive literature review to summarize the existing knowledge regarding the role of tetraspanins in EVs;
2) conduct a bioinformatic analysis of mass spectrometry (MS) data from EVs obtained from three different cell lines in which the key tetraspanins (CD9, CD63, and CD81) have been knocked out using KNIME platform and specific R libraries (e.g. DEP, QFeatures). Subsequently, she will follow with the biological interpretation of the results, including gene ontology and pathway analysis.
These findings will form the foundation for designing subsequent experiments aimed at elucidating the individual contributions of tetraspanins to EV biogenesis, cargo selection, cell targeting, and uptake.

Literature:
a) Jeppesen DK, Zhang Q, Franklin JL, Coffey RJ. Extracellular vesicles and nanoparticles: emerging complexities. Trends Cell Biol. 2023 Aug;33(8):667-681. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2023.01.002. Epub 2023 Feb 1. PMID: 36737375; PMCID: PMC10363204.
b) Kangas P, Nyman TA, Metsähonkala L, Burns C, Tempest R, Williams T, Karttunen J, Jokinen TS. Towards optimised extracellular vesicle proteomics from cerebrospinal fluid. Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 12;13(1):9564. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36706-z. PMID: 37308520; PMCID: PMC10261101.