**Understanding Neuromuscular Health and Disease: Advances in Genetics, Omics, and Molecular Function**

Editors **William Duddy Stephanie Duguez**

MDPI • Basel • Beijing • Wuhan • Barcelona • Belgrade • Manchester • Tokyo • Cluj • Tianjin

*Editors* William Duddy Biomedical Sciences Research Institute University of Ulster Derry/Londonderry United Kingdom

Stephanie Duguez Biomedical Sciences Research Institute University of Ulster Derry/Londonderry United Kingdom

*Editorial Office* MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 4052 Basel, Switzerland

This is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal *Journal of Personalized Medicine* (ISSN 2075-4426) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ jpm/special issues/Understanding Neuromuscular).

For citation purposes, cite each article independently as indicated on the article page online and as indicated below:

LastName, A.A.; LastName, B.B.; LastName, C.C. Article Title. *Journal Name* **Year**, *Volume Number*, Page Range.

**ISBN 978-3-0365-1622-6 (Hbk) ISBN 978-3-0365-1621-9 (PDF)**

© 2021 by the authors. Articles in this book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications.

The book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.

## **Contents**



## **About the Editors**

**William Duddy** Dr Duddy is a lecturer in Bioinformatics at the University of Ulster. He works closely with colleagues in cell biology and translational medicine, blending computational analysis with wet-lab experimental approaches to understand and treat pathology at the molecular level. His interest in neuromuscular health stems from the experience of having a brother with the muscle wasting disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. His current research focus is on the neurodegenerative condition, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, where he has helped to identify abnormalities in the behaviour of patient's muscle cells, including the secretion of neurotoxic vesicles.

**Stephanie Duguez** Dr Duguez's research group at Ulster University is composed of biologists and bioinformaticians and explores the intercellular communication between muscle tissue and surrounding cells, including motor neurons, inflammatory cells, and fibroblasts. Her group is using human muscle stem cells and studying their secretome profiles by different OMICS approaches such as proteomic, metabolomic, and transcriptomic analyses. The aim is to decipher the role of intercellular communication in different physiological and pathological conditions such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA), and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA-III & IV). By characterizing the muscle secretome, she aims to identify biomarkers and to unravel new therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disorders.
