Dairy Manufacturing Webinar, Milk derived extracellular vesicles as potential therapeutic agents, Sept. 10, 2025

Milk-derived extracellular vesicles as potential therapeutic agents

Presenter

Hilton Deeth, Emeritus Professor, University of Queensland

Webinar Description

Extracellular vesicles are micro- and nanosized structures secreted from cells into the extracellular environment. They are encased in a lipid bilayer and contain biologically active material such as lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. Milk extracellular vesicles, are secreted by the mammary gland cells into milk and possess similar functions to those secreted by other cells. They have been shown to have several health benefits, especially for gastrointestinal health, and are considered to be promising as a carrier of therapeutics. They have even been regarded as the next generation novel drug delivery system.

Milk extracellular vesicles are attracting particular attention because of their abundance in milk and their relative ease of extraction. They can be isolated from skim milk by methods such as ultracentrifugation and size exclusion chromatography. This webinar will discuss the nature of milk extracellular vesicles, their origin, their isolation from milk, and their known and potential therapeutic functions.