Bioengineering Approaches for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries

A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomedical Engineering and Biomaterials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 730

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
College of Engineering, Temple University, 1947 N. 12TH STREET, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
Interests: spinal cord injury; brain injury; bioengineering tools; bioengineering approaches; animal studies; clinical studies; imaging; proteomics; system-based

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Bioengineering approaches to understanding brain and spinal cord injury are critical to advancing the underlying injury mechanisms and investigating promising therapeutic approaches.

Despite advancements in fundamental research, no clinical trials have proven to be effective in the treatment of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. This has placed further emphasis on investigating and employing new bioengineering approaches that further our understanding of the underlying injury mechanisms and can help guide exploratory interventional strategies in clinically relevant trauma models.

This Special Issue aims to offer a summary of ongoing efforts that aim to provide a better understanding of traumatic brain and spinal cord injury while utilizing various novel bioengineering approaches and tools. The reported outcomes aim to open up new perspectives in bench-to-bedside research and can guide the current care of those who have sustained brain or spinal cord injuries.

In this Special Issue, we invite manuscripts that focus on various bioengineering approaches that are system-based, technique-based, tool-based, and others and offer molecular/pathobiological processes that operate in various clinically relevant models of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. We also encourage the submission of reports on molecular, proteomic, metabolomic, and imaging markers of traumatically evoked brain and spinal cord injury, as well as studies of therapeutic interventions where target engagement is based on well-defined pathobiological processes with morphological and functional endpoints of translational relevance.

Dr. Anita Singh
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • injury biomechanics
  • brain injury
  • spinal cord injury
  • birth related injuries
  • impact biomechanics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2833 KiB  
Article
Optimizing Transcutaneous Spinal Cord Stimulation: An Exploratory Study on the Role of Electrode Montages and Stimulation Intensity on Reflex Pathway Modulation
by Shirin Madarshahian, Michael Trakhtorchuck, Tatiana Guerrero-David, Kristin Gustafson, James S. Harrop, Caio M. Matias, M. J. Mulcahey, Alessandro Napoli, Alexander Vaccaro and Mijail Serruya
Bioengineering 2025, 12(4), 410; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering12040410 - 12 Apr 2025
Viewed by 356
Abstract
Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) is a promising non-invasive method to improve motor function in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) by enhancing spinal reflex pathways. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different tSCS electrode placement montages and targeted spinal levels [...] Read more.
Transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) is a promising non-invasive method to improve motor function in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) by enhancing spinal reflex pathways. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different tSCS electrode placement montages and targeted spinal levels on neurophysiological responses such as spinally evoked motor responses (sEMRs), dorsal root reflex activation, and muscle recruitment in individuals with SCI and healthy controls to optimize stimulation strategies for motor recovery. Five participants (three individuals with SCI and two controls) underwent transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation using various electrode montages, target spinal level stimulation, and single- and paired-pulse paradigms. Electromyographic responses were analyzed to determine sEMR threshold, amplitudes, and paired-pulse attenuation. Different spinal levels and spatial configurations of electrode placements influenced the sEMR threshold and incidence of sEMR across all participants. Paired-pulse analysis showed more pronounced second-pulse attenuation in SCI participants (48 ± 36%) than in controls (12 ± 20%, p = 0.0425), with distinct trends observed across montages and muscle groups. These findings suggest that spinal level, electrode configuration, and paired-pulse effects are key factors in personalizing tSCS, informing the development of patient-centered therapeutic strategies. Future studies with larger and more diverse cohorts are needed to validate and expand these findings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bioengineering Approaches for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries)
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