Sensorimotor integration is key for essential everyday behaviors such as locomotion, feeding, or reproduction. These actions require a complex, fine-tuned integration of sensory and motor information encoded as neural impulses from the periphery and higher brain areas, via spinal cord circuitry. Structural and functional plasticity within these circuits allows for adaptations in behavior.
However, after injury or in disease, these neural circuits are afflicted, resulting in a multitude of dysfunctions, not only in individual neurons but also by disrupting the signaling and connectivity between integrated neural circuits. As neural circuits are disrupted through trauma (e.g., spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury, TBI, stroke) or degeneration (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease), the integration and transmission of sensory and motor information required to execute basic and complex functions is impaired, often leading to devastating life-changing effects. The latest advances in genome editing and biochemical engineering of cells have shed some light on the mechanisms of some of these diseases, as well as identified novel targets for treating them.
This Research Topic is devoted to the latest advances in biochemical and genetic engineering tools to investigate the underlying neuronal mechanisms in order to overcome functional deficits induced by sensorimotor pathologies.
We are interested in submissions discussing the development and application of genetic and biochemical engineering techniques in sensorimotor diseases such as those generated by trauma or neurodegeneration, such as:
• Genetic control of neuronal activity (Optogenetics, Chemogenetics)
• Intravital imaging (Calcium imaging, metabolic monitoring)
• Gene editing (CRISPR/Cas9, RNAi)
• Metabolic and biochemical engineering
• High throughput cellular characterization (CyTOF, scRNAseq, ATACseq, spatial transcriptomics)
We welcome the submission of original research articles using in vivo, in vitro, or clinical models that discuss the development or application of biochemical and genetic engineering tools to study mechanisms underlying pathophysiology or treatments of sensorimotor pathologies. We encourage the submission of original research, comprehensive or mini-reviews, methods, perspectives, and opinions that discuss advances in the application of biochemical and genetic engineering tools on sensorimotor diseases.
Sensorimotor integration is key for essential everyday behaviors such as locomotion, feeding, or reproduction. These actions require a complex, fine-tuned integration of sensory and motor information encoded as neural impulses from the periphery and higher brain areas, via spinal cord circuitry. Structural and functional plasticity within these circuits allows for adaptations in behavior.
However, after injury or in disease, these neural circuits are afflicted, resulting in a multitude of dysfunctions, not only in individual neurons but also by disrupting the signaling and connectivity between integrated neural circuits. As neural circuits are disrupted through trauma (e.g., spinal cord injury, peripheral nerve injury, TBI, stroke) or degeneration (e.g., amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease), the integration and transmission of sensory and motor information required to execute basic and complex functions is impaired, often leading to devastating life-changing effects. The latest advances in genome editing and biochemical engineering of cells have shed some light on the mechanisms of some of these diseases, as well as identified novel targets for treating them.
This Research Topic is devoted to the latest advances in biochemical and genetic engineering tools to investigate the underlying neuronal mechanisms in order to overcome functional deficits induced by sensorimotor pathologies.
We are interested in submissions discussing the development and application of genetic and biochemical engineering techniques in sensorimotor diseases such as those generated by trauma or neurodegeneration, such as:
• Genetic control of neuronal activity (Optogenetics, Chemogenetics)
• Intravital imaging (Calcium imaging, metabolic monitoring)
• Gene editing (CRISPR/Cas9, RNAi)
• Metabolic and biochemical engineering
• High throughput cellular characterization (CyTOF, scRNAseq, ATACseq, spatial transcriptomics)
We welcome the submission of original research articles using in vivo, in vitro, or clinical models that discuss the development or application of biochemical and genetic engineering tools to study mechanisms underlying pathophysiology or treatments of sensorimotor pathologies. We encourage the submission of original research, comprehensive or mini-reviews, methods, perspectives, and opinions that discuss advances in the application of biochemical and genetic engineering tools on sensorimotor diseases.
