How it works: Extracellular Vesicles in bowel cancer

What are EVs?

A key area of research in our team is the exploration of EVs - tiny particles that get released from cells and act as carriers of molecules that can help cancers to grow and establish.

The image here is some EVs generated in our lab, taken with an electron microscope - a powerful technique that enables us to image objects that are too small for normal microscopes that use light.

How are EVs involved in bowel cancer?

Because EVs package and transport biomolecules, if they travel to other cells they can deliver this cargo which can then alter how cells and tissue behave. Our team asks questions like -

can EVs from cancer cells alter cells and tissues around them to help them grow?
Do EVs released from cancer cells travel around the body, helping cancers to metastasize?
What determines how an EV travels in this case?
The image here shows EVs taken from cancer tissue, apparently attached or close to tissue fibres. What determines whether an EV sticks in tissue or travels elsewhere?

EV projects in the SHEBCOR team

Our work has explored EVs in a range of different contexts connected to bowel cancer.

Rob Tempest completed his PhD in 2023 after showing that bowel cancer EVs interact and alter fat tissue, helping to explain the links between bowel cancer and obesity (manuscript in preparation).
Sonia Guarnerio completed her PhD in 2023 demonstrating that bowel cancer EVs can shape models of metastasis enabling bowel cancers to invade and spread (manuscript under review) in a project funded by Bowel Research UK.
Rawan Maani completed her PhD in 2025 showing that bowel cancer EVs can interact with microbes that live in the bowel, helping to explain why bowel cancer patients have altered microbial composition in their gut which might influence disease outcome (manuscript in preparation).
Charlotte Boyd is currently completing her PhD exploring whether diabetes alters the properties and functions of bowel cancer EVs, helping to explain why diabetics are around 30% more likely to develop this cancer - and have worse prognosis.
Sabreen Bawa is currently undertaking PhD research to understand whether EVs from highly stressed cancer cells (after being targeted by chemotherapy drugs, for example) contribute to how readily the cancer can metastasize.

Can EVs be helpful or useful in bowel cancer?

Because EVs are biological packages of cargo, our team has explored whether we can utilise this function to turn them against bowel cancer.

EV cargo can indicate whether patients have bowel cancer

(and what stage the cancer is. Here, M0 denotes cancer that has not spread (metastasised), and M1 denotes cancer that has. These EVs were taken from blood samples (Guarnerio et al, 2024).

EVs can be loaded with drugs as a natural chemotherapy delivery system

Here we've added a drug called doxorubicin to EVs that we generated in our lab. Doxorubicin glows red when illuminated by laser light, and we can see how succesful loading is by measuring the red particles (Chandler et al, 2025).

As part of her PhD studies, Sonia showed that measuring how EVs taken from bowel cancer patient blood samples alter how bowel cancer cells in the lab behave provided information about disease stage. The data shown above is taken from this pilot study published in 2024.
Emily Hayes started her PhD in 2025, to first of all continue developing EVs into a drug delivery system by incorporating gold-based drugs developed by our co-supervisor colleague Dr Alice Johnson, and then to assess whether sugars coating the surface of EVs influence how EVs stick to tissues. Can we leverage this to help them retain better in cancer tissues?

UKEV, ISEV and the EV scene

Nick has been a board member of the United Kingdom Society for EVs since 2020. He helps with arranging the annual forum. The image is from 2024, when "PeakEV" alumni Sonia was co-organiser!

Nick also supports the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), acting as Associate Editor for the Journal of Extracellular Biology

I am always open to enquiries about self-funded PhDs in EV biology. Any funded opportunities will be listed on the "news and media" page!

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse