All IPs of the network connected to the virtual meeting with the exception of Dr Sánchez-Madrid and Dr Mariano Provencio (replaced by Atocha Romero) and David Otaegui (replaced by Maider Muñoz)

Of course, this year has been really difficult for networking and interlaboratory exchange activities so the main objectives of the network will suffer a delay. However, the proposals raised in the kick-off meeting have been completed, we completed the contest for the official logo and launched the webpage (/tentacles-project/). A reminder was made to all members to send information about publications and other activities to keep the TeNTaCLES webpage as lively as possible.

We didn´t want to finish the year without any activity from the Network. Since we decided to focus our efforts in training and dissemination activities, we co-organized with GEIVEX and the University Francisco de Vitoria an online symposium which was held yesterday (December 17th). The online symposium had a great success, with over 150 attendants, remarkable scientific level and a great follow up during the whole session. The two international speakers invited (Dr Andy Hill and Dr An Hendrix) gave excellent talks and the discussion was lively in all sessions. We also had a great support from different companies in the field that sponsored the meeting and presented their equipment and reagents related to EVs. The satisfaction survey suggested a great acceptance, although still many replies suggested that a presential meeting or a mixed version would be preferred.

A round of discussion was opened with each PI of the network summarizing the already established or planned inter-network collaborations. New ideas of collaborations emerged from the discussion, so we were quite late in the agenda. We ended up the meeting with a wrap up by Dr Falcón-Pérez on ISEV activities and future plans (Standarization Task forces, future meetings, journals, etc) that could be of interest of the network.

Since we all have the feeling that it had been a very productive discussion, we decided to start a series of online activities of the network:

  • IP meetings. Two aspects were already proposed for this meeting that we didn´t have time to study in detail. We thus decided to set two online meetings only devoted to the discussion of the proposed activities:
    • Guide on Preanalytical parameters for biobanking (Jose Antonio López-Guerrero) in mid January
    • Methods for EV and circulating nucleic acid detection (Mar Valés-Gómez) around the beginning of March
    • Update on SEC and interlaboratory assessment of the resins (María Yáñez-Mó) mid April
  • An online monthly journal club for all members (including students and ESR) will be launched. Students from the network will be in charge of the organization.