PHoNUPS: Open-Source Software for Standardized Analysis and Visualization of Multi-Instrument Extracellular Vesicle Measurements

Accurate and transparent characterization of extracellular vesicle (EV) preparations is essential to ensure reproducibility, comparability, and adherence to MISEV reporting standards. However, data outputs from commonly used instruments for assessing EV size, concentration, and surface charge (zeta potential) vary widely in format and structure, complicating standardized analysis and integration across platforms. We present PHoNUPS (Plotting the Histogram of Non-Uniform Particles Sizes), free and open-source software (FOSS) developed in R, that enables unified processing, analysis, and visualization of EV characterization data. PHoNUPS computes statistics and generates standardized histograms and contour plots (for size against zeta potential) suitable for transparent reporting and cross-study comparison. The software produces high-quality, publication-ready figures. Third-party graphical editing tools allow users to refine and annotate visualizations for presentation or manuscript preparation. PHoNUPS supports multiple measurement file formats, thereby facilitating dataset integration from different instruments. PHoNUPS was developed with extensibility at its core, providing a basis for user-driven growth. We invite the EV community--researchers, analysts, and tool developers--to use PHoNUPS, share feedback on their experience and needs, and contribute to the platform by integrating additional input data formats, analytical routines, and visualization functionalities. Graphical abstractThe free software PHoNUPS processes the outputs of several different EV characterization instruments and it is extensible with further ones. It computes statistics of particle size and zeta potential distributions and it plots the corresponding histograms or contour plots. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=146 SRC="FIGDIR/small/702479v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (28K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b2b3a1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2f2907org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@2ec521org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@903624_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG