Dr. Augustas Pivoriunas

Co-Founder & CSO at Exosomica

Speaker

Dr. Augustas Pivoriūnas is Chief research fellow, Head of Department of Stem Cell Biology at the State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania. He is also a co-founder and chief scientific officer at the company Exosomica.

Dr. Augustas Pivoriūnas leads an active group of scientists and PhD students and his research interests focus primarily on extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from different types of adult stem cells and their applications in basic research and cell-based therapies. In recent years he studies neuroprotective effects of EVs derived from human exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHEDs) and oral mucosa stem cells (OMSCs) using in vitro and in vivo models of neurodegenerative diseases. His group was among the first to demonstrate that EVs can rescue human dopaminergic neurons from 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced apoptosis in vitro (Cytotherapy. 2015 Jul;17(7):932-9).

His group together with partners from the University of Latvia demonstrated for the first time that intranasal administration of EVs derived from the SHEDs can effectively suppress 6-OHDA-induced gait impairments and normalize tyrosine hydroxylase expression in the striatum and in the substantia nigra of experimental rats (Stem Cells Transl Med. 2019 May;8(5):490-499, paper is winner of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine 's Young Investigator Award 2020). Further studies demonstrated that EVs reversed spatial learning/memory impairments caused by intra-MFB injection of 6-OHDA (Cell. Mol. Neurobiol, 2021 Apr;41(3):605-613.).

These findings demonstrate that intranasal administration of EVs preserve dopaminergic neurons, can substantially improve motor and non-motor symptoms of the PD and therefore could be potentially used for the development of novel and minimally invasive therapy. Another research area is focused on the investigation of anti-neuroinflammatory properties of EVs using in vitro and in vivo models of human microglia (FEBS J. 2024 Aug;291(16):3706-3722; Cell Biol Int. 2024 Mar;48(3):358-368).

As a chief scientific officer at the company Exosomica he coordinates development of technology allowing scaling up production and isolation of therapeutically active EVs that can be used as a minimally invasive therapeutic tools against wide spectrum of neurological disorders.