Marko was awarded a dual bachelors in Pharmacology/Psychology from the University of Auckland (2018), and a Masters of Pharmacy from Griffith University (2021). General: Exosomes are small (40-120 nm), stable, lipid bilayer nanovesicles identified in biological fluids (e.g. in milk, blood, urine and saliva). They contain a diverse array of signalling molecules, including mRNA, microRNA (miR), proteins, lipids and membrane receptors, and they interact with target cells via multiple pathways. The cargo of circulating exosomes can be indicative of a specific tissue’s health status, granting the capacity for use of exosomes as a tool for disease diagnosis. Moreover, they have many of the features desirable of an ideal drug delivery system (e.g. long circulating half-life, the intrinsic ability to target tissues and cross species compatibility). Therefore making them an ideal candidate to be investigated as a vehicle for delivering therapeutics. Specifics: Using exosomes as therapeutic delivery systems: My current PhD project is based upon the characterization and loading of exosomes with different drugs, such as Doxorubicin (anti-cancer) and Mefenamic acid (NSAID) (also others but TBD which molecule) using various techniques such as electroporation, sonication, and incubation. I am looking to successfully load such medications of interest (low bioavailability, high toxicity, off-target effects etc) into exosomes to utilize as delivery vehicles for improving the clinical applicability of these molecules.
Marko is based at TRI with Dr Sonia Henriques (primary supervisor)in the Peptide Therapeutics and Membrane Biology research group.