Transformative research in neural engineering: Foreword / editors' commentary (volume 3).

Neural engineering is in the midst of a renaissance. e main goal of neural engineering is to develop solutions to neurological, neurosurgical, and reha-bilitative problems. As neuroscientists and neural engineers, we are in an early period of discovery where we are deening the limitations both technologically and biologically of how we can fundamentally alter the function of the nervous system. is issue of Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering is volume three of a three volume series focused on neural engineering. e theme of this issue is " Transformative Research in Neural Engineering. " Indeed, biomedical engineering eeorts have brought us to the precipice of innovative neuro-technology altering our world in ways previously unimaginable. Yet unanswered questions abound: What are the regenerative limits of the nervous system? Can noninvasive (external) interfaces ever provide suucient resolution to control neuronal function? Will " electrodes " ultimately be the nal solution for electrical interface, or will optogenetics play a role? Can biomaterials or biohybridization ever remove the innammatory or foreign-body response? Will cell replacement strategies fundamentally alter repair following injury or mitigate age-related deecits? Successful programs will address these questions as they evolve, utilizing new technology and discoveries to create solutions for the neural engineering challenges of the twenty-rst century. As with most biomedical engineering endeavors , a successful neural engineering research program should be interdisciplinary, able to integrate emerging technologies, and advanced by hypothesis driven studies. Neural engineering projects represent the quintessential cross-disciplinary biomedical engineering endeavor, often drawing from various areas, such as neuroscience, neurology, and neurosurgery as well as multiple engineering subspecialties such as electrical, mechanical, and materials science. Ambitious neural engineering projects will continue to transform the eld, bringing together multidisciplinary technical expertise found in schools of engineering with clinical and neuropathophysiological knowledge present in schools of medicine. ese teams must collectively provide the requisite expertise for a given complex problem, but be mutually dependent to maximize the perspectives and capabilities of the team. Such collaborations require the skills, knowledge, and full engagement of each individual, and often must be formed across universities. Such multidisciplinary, mutually dependent teams are needed in order to shift paradigms and allow us to transform how the nervous system heals, ages, and interfaces with complex technologies. However, research using such multidisciplinary teams often creates unique challenges. ese teams, by deenition, require neuroscientists or clinicians interacting with biomedical engineers. For instance , common neural engineering projects involve …