According to the Precision Medicine Initiative, precision neurology is using genetics for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of brain disorders. Towards that end, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genome sequencing (by gene panel, exome, or WGS) provide an essential tool to implicate gene targets/variants in neurologic diagnoses, to enable genetic stratification in clinical trials, and to identify patients most likely to benefit from specific therapeutic interventions.
Research projects are built on the premise that a constellation of clinical features and their progression is consistent with a specific etiology and neurological diagnosis. In reality, research is conducted on individual brain health states, which can be affected by many factors, such as living environment, lifestyle, or eating habits, hence giving rise to pleiotropy and pleomorphism despite the limited repertoire of neurologic disorders. Therein, biomarkers, including germline and somatic DNA variability, may fundamentally explain pathogenesis and neuropathology, when incorporated into clinical diagnoses, may substantially improve precision neurology. Well-characterized human brain tissues are required to evaluate the role of such biomarkers. Many technical innovations from whole genome gene/protein expression in formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections to single nuclear RNAseq, to tissue clearing, immunostaining, and light-sheet imaging, now enable digital pathology to reveal the molecular consequences of neurogenetics in brain health and disease.
Thus, topic editors will welcome any types of manuscripts supported by the Journal – comprised of research articles, brief research articles, review, and mini-review – pertaining, but not limited to the following themes:
• Neurogenetics encompassing rare, monogenetic disorders to illuminate the role of genetic factors in familial and sporadic neurological diseases. Studies may range from case series of heritable neurological diseases to clinical trials of heritable neurological diseases, to studies of polygenic risk, transcript and protein expression, neuropathological studies of the human brain, etc.
• Research on brain health, including, but not limited to research on the gut-brain axis, nutrition including trace elements, lifestyle and environment, and aging, etc.
• Human brain banking, including, but not limited to clinical-pathological correlation studies, ethics, and best practices, to detailed molecular studies encompassing human brain tissues.
According to the Precision Medicine Initiative, precision neurology is using genetics for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of brain disorders. Towards that end, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and genome sequencing (by gene panel, exome, or WGS) provide an essential tool to implicate gene targets/variants in neurologic diagnoses, to enable genetic stratification in clinical trials, and to identify patients most likely to benefit from specific therapeutic interventions.
Research projects are built on the premise that a constellation of clinical features and their progression is consistent with a specific etiology and neurological diagnosis. In reality, research is conducted on individual brain health states, which can be affected by many factors, such as living environment, lifestyle, or eating habits, hence giving rise to pleiotropy and pleomorphism despite the limited repertoire of neurologic disorders. Therein, biomarkers, including germline and somatic DNA variability, may fundamentally explain pathogenesis and neuropathology, when incorporated into clinical diagnoses, may substantially improve precision neurology. Well-characterized human brain tissues are required to evaluate the role of such biomarkers. Many technical innovations from whole genome gene/protein expression in formalin fixed paraffin embedded sections to single nuclear RNAseq, to tissue clearing, immunostaining, and light-sheet imaging, now enable digital pathology to reveal the molecular consequences of neurogenetics in brain health and disease.
Thus, topic editors will welcome any types of manuscripts supported by the Journal – comprised of research articles, brief research articles, review, and mini-review – pertaining, but not limited to the following themes:
• Neurogenetics encompassing rare, monogenetic disorders to illuminate the role of genetic factors in familial and sporadic neurological diseases. Studies may range from case series of heritable neurological diseases to clinical trials of heritable neurological diseases, to studies of polygenic risk, transcript and protein expression, neuropathological studies of the human brain, etc.
• Research on brain health, including, but not limited to research on the gut-brain axis, nutrition including trace elements, lifestyle and environment, and aging, etc.
• Human brain banking, including, but not limited to clinical-pathological correlation studies, ethics, and best practices, to detailed molecular studies encompassing human brain tissues.
