Vilhena Lab

Category: Publications

  • New perspective in Trillium Extracellular Vesicles 2026: bacterial EVs, between biotech promise and biological “black boxes”

    New perspective in Trillium Extracellular Vesicles 2026: bacterial EVs, between biotech promise and biological “black boxes”

    I’m happy to share that my perspective article, “Bacterial extracellular vesicles: From biotechnological tools to biological ‘black boxes’”, is now out in the 2026 issue of Trillium Extracellular Vesicles.

    What the article is about
    Bacterial EVs (bEVs) are being fast developed as drug-delivery vehicles, vaccine platforms (the OMV-based meningococcal vaccines are the best-known example) and diagnostic tools. Our understanding of their basic biology hasn’t kept up. We still don’t know how vesicles form, how cargo is selected, or why vesicle populations are so heterogeneous, especially in Gram-positive bacteria, where vesicles have to cross a thick cell wall. Differences in isolation methods and the lack of standardised markers also make studies hard to compare. This piece argues that resolving these mechanisms is essential for both fundamental microbiology and the medical potential of bEVs.

    📄 Read the article: DOI 10.47184/tev.2026.01.03
    📚 Browse the full issue: Trillium Extracellular Vesicles 2026

    Full text requires a free MyTrillium account.

  • Our second publication is out!

    Our second publication is out!

    BIDlab ‘s second paper is out! 🥳 🎉 In this story, we explore how certain environmental conditions influence extracellular vesicles formation in our favorite bug Streptococcus pneumoniae and how this reflects on biofilm formation 🔬 🧫


    Awesome work by Miriana Battista, our collaborators at Applied Systems Biology and several students over the last couple of years, thank you all!! 🙏 🫂

    You can read our story here.

  • The first publication of the BIDlab is out

    The first publication of the BIDlab is out

    So so happy to share with you our very first publication from the #BIDlab in ACS Infectious Diseases! 🥳 🎉 🙏

    In this work, we utilize a cocultivation platform to explore #extracellularvesicles formation at the interface between #bacteria and the human host and provide first insights into regulatory molecular mechanisms. 🧫 🦠

    A huge thanks to our super talented PhD student Miriana Battista and our amazing collaborators Christoph Saffer and Applied Systems Biology Jena for the work and support 👌 🙏

    You can read our story here.