Handbook of Neural Engineering : A Modern Approach

Handbook of Neural Engineering: A Modern Approach provides a comprehensive overview of the field from biology to recent technological advances through an interdisciplinary lens. The book is divided into three sections: 1) Biological Considerations for Neural Engineering, 2) Neural Engineering Strategies, and 3) Emerging Technologies for Neural Engineering. It provides the first comprehensive text that addresses this combination of subjects. Neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis, represent an enormous healthcare burden, and many of these diseases lack true cures, making it imperative to study the biological systems that become disordered to understand potential treatment options.

This book covers the basic neurobiology and physiology, common neural engineering strategies, and emerging technologies in this field. It is designed to support an upper year/graduate elective course in neural engineering, and will provide a foundational overview of the field for interdisciplinary researchers, clinicians, engineers, and industry professionals. The handbook provides readers with a strong base in both biological and engineering principles along with the concepts necessary to implement solutions using Neural Engineering.

• Includes coverage of foundational concepts of the fast-moving field of Neural Engineering, from overview and structure of the nervous system, cellular biology of the nervous system, extracellular matrix of the nervous system, role of the immune system in the nervous system, disease states of the nervous system, and the effects of trauma and chronic pain on the nervous system
• Provides readers with understanding of Neural Engineering strategies, in key areas such as imagining, examining nervous system function, neural interfaces, Brain-Computer Interfaces, neural prostheses, neurorobotics, and neural tissue engineering
• Includes a complete section on emerging technologies for neural engineering applications, such as optogenetics, gene editing, brain organoids, and modeling with organ-on-a-chip systems

Dr. Stephanie Willerth, Ph.D., F.C.S.S.E., F.B.S.E., is a Full Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria, where she has dual appointments in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Sciences. She runs an internationally recognized research group focused on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. She also holds an appointment with the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars in 2021 and received the 2021 Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia’s Teaching Award for Excellence. She founded the award winning start-up company Axolotl Biosciences, which sells high-quality bioinks for bioprinting human tissue models. Dr. Willerth is an active member of the steering committee of the B.C. Regenerative Medicine Initiative and the Stem Cell Network. She also serves as a staff scientist at Creative Destruction Lab. Dr. Willerth served as the Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research and the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Victoria from 2018-2021 and as the President of Canadian Biomaterials Society from 2018-2019. Dr. Willerth is the author of Engineering Neural Tissue from Stem Cells, published by Elsevier Academic Press in 2016.