Abstract
Living cells produce nanometer scales of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that have attracted considerable interest due to their transformative effects on diagnostics and therapies for cancer and other diseases. While significant advancements have been made in grasping the physical and chemical foundations of separation techniques for EVs, challenges must be overcome to ensure effective EV purification for diverse life sciences and clinical applications. This review highlights the most significant developments in efficient isolation and purification methods for EVs in transformative medicine. We examine the basic structure of exosomes and how to obtain specimens containing exosomes and EVs from various body fluids. We investigate the principles of physical, chemical, and biological isolation methods of EVs. We systematically evaluate different designs of microfluidics-based EV purification methods. We provide a comprehensive overview of the applications of exosomes in the life sciences and medicine. The precise engineering of EV isolation and purification generates a high yield and purity, offering practical solutions for translational medicine.