title: ISEV position paper: extracellular vesicle RNA analysis and bioinformatics.
abstract: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are the collective term for the various vesicles that are released by cells into the extracellular space. Such vesicles include exosomes and microvesicles, which vary by their size and/or protein and genetic cargo. With the discovery that EVs contain genetic material in the form of RNA (evRNA) has come the increased interest in these vesicles for their potential use as sources of disease biomarkers and potential therapeutic agents. Rapid developments in the availability of deep sequencing technologies have enabled the study of EV-related RNA in detail. In October 2012, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) held a workshop on "evRNA analysis and bioinformatics." Here, we report the conclusions of one of the roundtable discussions where we discussed evRNA analysis technologies and provide some guidelines to researchers in the field to consider when performing such analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Andrew F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, VU University Medical Centre, Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: D Michiel
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Pegtel
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lambertz
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John van Geest Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair and Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK ; EMBL - European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Leonardi
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: O'Driscoll
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John van Geest Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair and Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pluchino
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Dmitry
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ter-Ovanesyan
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esther N M
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Nolte-'t Hoen
keywords: RNA; bioinformatics; deep sequencing; evRNA; extracellular vesicles