Guest Editors
Esther Wehrle
AO Research Institute Davos
Esther Wehrle, DVM, PhD, leads the Bone Biology Focus Area at the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI), is a lecturer at ETH Zurich (ETHZ), and serves as a scientific advisor for spatial transcriptomics in musculoskeletal research societies. With her team at ARI, she develops and employs multimodal and individualized approaches (e.g., omics, in vivo models, imaging) to understand and target impaired bone healing. A major focus is the development and application of spatial transcriptomics approaches to advance musculoskeletal research. Her background is in veterinary medicine and biomedical engineering (LMU, TU Munich). After working in a veterinary referral clinic in the UK, she focused on molecular/mechanobiology and bone healing during doctoral projects in Munich and Ulm. After Postdoc and team lead positions at the Laboratory for Bone Biomechanics (ETHZ), she joined ARI in 2022, providing a clinically oriented environment for advancing translationally targeted multidisciplinary research on bone healing using emerging omics approaches.
Elena Della Bella
AO Research Institute Davos
Elena Della Bella, PhD, is a senior scientist in progenitor cell biology with expertise in musculoskeletal biology and regenerative medicine. Her research focuses on understanding cellular heterogeneity, progenitor cell function, and tissue remodeling in musculoskeletal tissues, particularly cartilage and bone. She is especially interested in leveraging single-cell transcriptomics to decipher cell states, lineage trajectories, and microenvironmental interactions that regulate tissue homeostasis, degeneration, and repair. Her work aims to uncover mechanisms of musculoskeletal regeneration and identify novel therapeutic targets for degenerative diseases. Dr. Della Bella is committed to advancing the application of single-cell and spatial omics approaches in musculoskeletal research and promoting their translation into regenerative medicine.
Xenia Goldberg Dahl
University of Southern Denmark, Deptartment of Clinical Research
Dr. Xenia Goldberg Dahl is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, where she investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal diseases and skeletal aging. Her research focuses on the application of advanced spatial omics technologies, including spatial transcriptomics and highly multiplexed imaging, to characterize tissue microenvironments and cellular interactions in bone. By integrating spatially resolved molecular data with histopathology, primary cell sequencing datasets, and computational analysis, she seeks to uncover the mechanisms driving tissue remodeling and aging. Dr. Goldberg Dahl has a strong interest in emerging technologies that enable high-resolution mapping of complex biological systems and computational approaches to advance our understanding of musculoskeletal biology and support the identification of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for age-related skeletal disorders.
Collection Overview
The musculoskeletal system shows a hierarchical structure and is characterized by cellular and molecular crosstalk of multiple tissues. Traditional bulk transcriptomic approaches have provided valuable insights, yet they fail to capture the heterogeneity and spatial organization of cells and molecular patterns in their microenvironment, limiting our understanding of mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal disorders, injuries, and healing impairments.
Emerging spatial transcriptomics and single-cell approaches have demonstrated potential to advance musculoskeletal research by providing high-resolution and spatially-resolved information on underlying cellular and molecular signaling. Nevertheless, musculoskeletal samples pose challenges to transcriptomic laboratory workflows due to their multi-tissue composition and calcified nature, often requiring adaptation of published protocols. In addition, many musculoskeletal studies are characterized by small sample sizes and low bone cell density to be addressed in bioinformatics and computational analyses.
This Topical Collection invites cutting-edge research that develops and utilizes single-cell and spatial transcriptomics approaches in musculoskeletal applications, covering in vitro, organoid, in vivo, and clinical settings. We welcome original methods and research articles, including but not limited to the listed areas:
- Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics laboratory protocols for musculoskeletal samples
- Bioinformatics and computational analysis pipelines for musculoskeletal studies
- Research articles applying single-cell and spatial transcriptomics in musculoskeletal applications
- Multi-modal and multi-omics approaches
By bringing together innovative single-cell and spatial transcriptomics protocols and research, this collection aims to provide a toolbox and advance our mechanistic understanding of musculoskeletal disorders, injuries, and healing impairments, identify targets, and foster translational breakthroughs in orthopedics and musculoskeletal health.