Publications related to Silk Hydrogels as Soft Substrates for Neural Tissue Engineering

Organ Neuroprosthetics: Connecting Transplanted and Artificial Organs with the Nervous System

Implantable neural interfaces with the central and peripheral nervous systems are currently used to restore sensory, motor, and cognitive functions in disabled people with very promising results. They have also been used to modulate autonomic activities to ...

Wiley2024

Uncovering interactions between Descending Neurons as a functional principle of behavioural control

Jonas Friedrich Braun

Animals, including humans, exhibit a remarkable variety of complex behaviours. How the nervous system controls all these behaviours ranging from simple, stereotyped movements to flexible, adaptive actions is a central questions of neuroscience. One of the ...

EPFL2024

Biophysically accurate and machine learning-based surrogate models to optimize neuroprosthesis design and operation

Simone Romeni

Electrical stimulation of the nervous system has emerged as a promising assistive technology in case of many injuries and illnesses across various parts of the nervous system. In particular, the invasive neuromodulation of the peripheral nervous system see ...

EPFL2024

Unraveling behavior and cortical signals to guide the development of soft neuroprostheses for auditory restoration and spreading depolarization

Emilie Cornelia Maria Revol

Neuroprostheses have been used clinically for decades, to help restore or preserve brain functions, when pharmaceutical treatments are inefficient. Although great progress in the field has been made over the years to interface with the nervous system, surf ...

EPFL2024

A method and system for optimizing design, implantation, and stimulation protocols of electrodes stimulating the nervous system

Silvestro Micera, Simone Romeni

A method for optimizing at least one of a geometry, an implantation procedure, and/or stimulation protocol of one or more electrodes for an electrical stimulation of a target structure in a nervous system of a living being by a computer device, the method ...

2024

Augmenting locomotor perception by remapping tactile foot sensation to the back

Mohamed Bouri, Olaf Blanke, Oliver Alan Kannape, Atena Fadaeijouybari, Selim Jean Habiby Alaoui

Background :Sensory reafferents are crucial to correct our posture and movements, both reflexively and in a cognitively driven manner. They are also integral to developing and maintaining a sense of agency for our actions. In cases of compromised reafferen ...

BioMed Central2024

Engineering hydrogel microenvironments for epithelial organoid culture

Antonius Chrisnandy

Organoids, miniature tissues generated from self-organizing stem cells within three-dimensional (3D) extracellular matrices (ECM), have opened up exciting possibilities for in vitro studies of complex physiological processes. A key factor in the success of ...

EPFL2024

Enhancing Chondrocyte Biosynthetic Activities: Harnessing the Power of Loading-Induced Evolved Temperature

Theofanis Stampoultzis

Chondrocytes within articular cartilage possess the capacity to perceive and react to signals generated by the typical load-bearing actions of daily life, such as walking or running. Articular cartilage is predominantly oriented toward compression-based fu ...

EPFL2024

Large-scale in-silico analysis of CSF dynamics within the subarachnoid space of the optic nerve

Gilles Fourestey

BackgroundImpaired cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics is involved in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system and the optic nerve (ON), including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, as well as frontotemporal dementia ...

BMC2024

Neuroprotection in the Retina: From Preventing Inflammatory Cell Death to Promoting Vascular Stability in the Central Nervous System

Bokyoung Kim

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Glaucoma is defined clinically as the presence of optic nerve head (ONH) degeneration and progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Intra-ocular pressure (IOP) has been con ...

EPFL2024

First Advanced Bilayer Scaffolds for Tailored Skin Tissue Engineering Produced via Electrospinning and Melt Electrowriting

Nicolas Tissot, Biranche Tandon

In vitro skin models are validated methods for screening cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, but still have limitations. The bilayer poly(epsilon-caprolactone) scaffold/membrane model described here overcomes some of these deficits by integrating a solution ele ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Fluorescent fatty acid conjugates for live cell imaging of peroxisomes

Luc Reymond, Manon Sandra Bardyn, Fabien Kuttler, Daria Korotkova, Triana Amen, Milena Maria Schuhmacher

Peroxisomes are eukaryotic organelles that are essential for multiple metabolic pathways, including fatty acid oxidation, degradation of amino acids, and biosynthesis of ether lipids. Consequently, peroxisome dysfunction leads to pediatric-onset neurodegen ...

Nature Research2024

Reconstruction of nerve functional topography using recruitment curves enables selective electrical stimulation

Silvestro Micera, Simone Romeni, Bianca Ziliotto

Multi-polar stimulation protocols have been used in the past to increase the selectivity of electrical stimulation of the nervous system. Nonetheless, the number of possible multipolar stimulation protocols is prohibitively large and cannot be explored dur ...

IEEE2023

Integration of feedforward and feedback control in the neuromechanics of vertebrate locomotion: a review of experimental, simulation and robotic studies

Auke Ijspeert

Animal locomotion is the result of complex and multi-layered interactions between the nervous system, the musculo-skeletal system and the environment. Decoding the underlying mechanisms requires an integrative approach. Comparative experimental biology has ...

Company Biologists Ltd2023

Soft bioelectronic technologies for selective and multimodal peripheral nerve interfaces

Valentina Marie Paggi

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) regulates the exchange of sensory information and motor commands between the body and the central nervous system. Further, through the autonomic nervous system, the PNS plays a pivotal role in controlling vital physiolog ...

EPFL2023

Overexpression of human alpha-Synuclein leads to dysregulated microbiome/metabolites with ageing in a rat model of Parkinson disease

Yogesh Singh Chauhan, Hilal Lashuel, Florian Lang, Joan Romani Aumedes, Yogesh Singh

Background Braak's hypothesis states that sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) follows a specific progression of pathology from the peripheral to the central nervous system, and this progression can be monitored by detecting the accumulation of alpha-Synuclei ...

BMC2023

Machine-learning predictor of nerve fiber firing rate allows the automatic optimization of electrical stimulation protocols

Silvestro Micera, Simone Romeni, Luca Pierantoni, Gabriele Marino

Computational models have been widely employed to study the electrical stimulation of the nervous system. Still, most applications either study fundamental mechanisms underlying stimulation, or address qualitative scientific questions. When quantitative qu ...

IEEE2023

Cardiovascular response to closed-loop intraneural stimulation of the right vagus nerve: a proof-of-concept study

Silvestro Micera

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an FDA-approved technique for the neuromodulation of the autonomic nervous system. There are many therapeutic applications where VNS could be used as a therapy, such as cardiovascular diseases, epilepsy, depression, and inf ...

IEEE2023

Novel Design and Implementation of a Neuromuscular Controller on a Hip Exoskeleton for Partial Gait Assistance

Mohamed Bouri, Auke Ijspeert, Andrea Di Russo, Ali Reza Manzoori, Sara Messara

Exoskeletons intended for partial assistance of walking should be able to follow the gait pattern of their users, via online adaptive control strategies rather than imposing predefined kinetic or kinematic profiles. NeuroMuscular Controllers (NMCs) are ada ...

2023

Revealing the complexity of ultra-soft hydrogel re-swelling inside the brain

Stéphanie Lacour, Michael Shur, John Martin Kolinski, Outman Akouissi, Olivier Didier Christian Rizzo

The brain is an ultra-soft viscoelastic matrix. Sub-kPa hydrogels match the brain's mechanical properties but are challenging to manipulate in an implantable format. We propose a simple fabrication and processing sequence, consisting of de-hydration, patte ...

2023