Bioelectronic medicine: engineering advances, physiological insights, and translational applications

Edited by Stavros Zanos, Timir Datta-Chaudhuri, Vasiliki Giagka, Loren Rieth, and Theodoros Zanos

The field of Bioelectronic Medicine has grown significantly in the last decade, in both academia and industry.  It is an intrinsically multidisciplinary field and therefore advances require collaboration across diverse areas of expertise. At the core of the field lies the concept of electrically interfacing with the nervous system to modulate and control the immune response and the physiological state of organs and systems. The field necessarily draws from numerous fields of research, including:

• development of peripheral nerve electrodes and biological interfaces
• stimulation techniques and technologies for organ- and fiber-specific neuromodulation
• systems and algorithms for closed-loop neurostimulation
• electronics and implantable devices that enable wired or wireless operation, including powering and communication
• techniques for signal processing and machine learning to study the relationship between nerve signals and physiological function
• validation of these systems in preclinical models of disease

For this thematic series we would like to invite original contributions and reviews in the following areas:

1. Novel neural interfaces

• Electrode materials, fabrication, and validation
• Electrode-tissue interface and tissue response
• In vivo sensors of immune, metabolic, neural, and cardiovascular biomarkers

2. Methods, systems, and applications of targeted neuromodulation

• Organ- and fiber type-specific neurostimulation
• Optical stimulation
• Ultrasonic neuromodulation systems
• Closed-loop bioelectronic systems
• Applications of targeted neuromodulation

3. Advances in bioelectronic data analytics

• Decoding of nerve activity
• Artifact rejection and signal-processing methods
• Bandwidth reduction and high-throughput techniques

4. New implantable bioelectronic devices

• System integration and packaging development and validation
• Wireless power and telemetry
• Device miniaturization for small rodents

5. Translation of bioelectronic therapies

• Acute electrode evaluation of safety and efficacy of novel technologies
• Chronic lifetime and performance
• Bioelectronic therapies in animal models of metabolic, cardiovascular, and neurological disorders
• Implications for clinical translation

Series keywords: Bioelectronics; Neural interfaces; Targeted neuromodulation; Closed-loop neuromodulation; Data analytics; Implantable devices; Animal models of disease; Translational medicine applications

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process.

You can submit to this series, here.