Unravelling biological roles and mechanisms of GABAR on addiction and depression through mood and memory disorders.

The metabotropic γ-aminobutyric acid type B receptor (GABAR) remains a hotspot in the recent research area. Being an idiosyncratic G-protein coupled receptor family member, the GABAR manifests adaptively tailored functionality under multifarious modulations by a constellation of agents, pointing to cross-talk between receptors and effectors that converge on the domains of mood and memory. This review systematically summarizes the latest achievements in signal transduction mechanisms of the GABAR-effector-regulator complex and probes how the up-and down-regulation of membrane-delimited GABARs are associated with manifold intrinsic and extrinsic agents in synaptic strength and plasticity.

Hydrogel Arrays Enable Increased Throughput for Screening Effects of Matrix Components and Therapeutics in 3D Tumor Models.

Cell-matrix interactions mediate complex physiological processes through biochemical, mechanical, and geometrical cues, influencing pathological changes and therapeutic responses. Accounting for matrix effects earlier in the drug development pipeline is expected to increase the likelihood of clinical success of novel therapeutics. Biomaterial-based strategies recapitulating specific tissue microenvironments in 3D cell culture exist but integrating these with the 2D culture methods primarily used for drug screening has been challenging.

Brain-on-a-chip: Recent advances in design and techniques for microfluidic models of the brain in health and disease.

Recent advances in biomaterials, microfabrication, microfluidics, and cell biology have led to the development of organ-on-a-chip devices that can reproduce key functions of various organs. Such platforms promise to provide novel insights into various physiological events, including mechanisms of disease, and evaluate the effects of external interventions, such as drug administration. The neuroscience field is expected to benefit greatly from these innovative tools.

Engineering Tissues of the Central Nervous System: Interfacing Conductive Biomaterials with Neural Stem/Progenitor Cells.

Conductive biomaterials provide an important control for engineering neural tissues, where electrical stimulation can potentially direct neural stem/progenitor cell (NS/PC) maturation into functional neuronal networks. It is anticipated that stem cell-based therapies to repair damaged central nervous system (CNS) tissues and ex vivo, "tissue chip" models of the CNS and its pathologies will each benefit from the development of biocompatible, biodegradable, and conductive biomaterials. Here, technological advances in conductive biomaterials are reviewed over the past two decades that may facilitate the development of engineered tissues with integrated physiological and electrical functionalities.

Matrices, scaffolds & carriers for cell delivery in nerve regeneration.

Nerve injuries can be life-long debilitating traumas that severely impact patients' quality of life. While many acellular neural scaffolds have been developed to aid the process of nerve regeneration, complete functional recovery is still very difficult to achieve, especially for long-gap peripheral nerve injury and most cases of spinal cord injury. Cell-based therapies have shown many promising results for improving nerve regeneration.

A microfluidic platform to study the effects of GDNF on neuronal axon entrapment.

Background: One potential treatment strategy to enhance axon regeneration is transplanting Schwann Cells (SCs) that overexpress glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). Unfortunately, constitutive GDNF overexpression in vivo can result in failure of regenerating axons to extend beyond the GDNF source, a phenomenon termed the "candy-store" effect. Little is known about the mechanism of this axon entrapment in vivo.

Dissection of DNA damage responses using multiconditional genetic interaction maps.

To protect the genome, cells have evolved a diverse set of pathways designed to sense, signal, and repair multiple types of DNA damage. To assess the degree of coordination and crosstalk among these pathways, we systematically mapped changes in the cell's genetic network across a panel of different DNA-damaging agents, resulting in ~1,800,000 differential measurements. Each agent was associated with a distinct interaction pattern, which, unlike single-mutant phenotypes or gene expression data, has high statistical power to pinpoint the specific repair mechanisms at work.