Towards Central Nervous System regeneration

Spinal cord injury disrupts the connections that carry movement and sensation between the brain and body. Around 500,000 people are affected each year worldwide, and UK estimates place lifetime costs at about £1.12 million per case. Current treatments focus on limiting further damage, preventing complications, and rehabilitation, but no established treatment reliably repairs the damaged spinal cord after injury.

We’re building a bioelectronic device that uses electrical stimulation to drive neural regeneration. The approach is based on evidence that carefully controlled electric fields can guide damaged nerve fibres and support reconnection across injured spinal tissue.

This is early-stage work. We don’t have a commercial product. We don’t treat patients today. But we do have peer-reviewed foundations, a clear hypothesis, and a lean team building toward a future where spinal cord injury is treated through repair.

Research

Thick conducting polymer films for ultra-low frequency stimulation

APL Electronic Devices · Vol. 1, No. 3 · 036104 · 2025

Before founding Efference, our CEO led research at the University of Cambridge investigating the electrochemical behaviour of novel neural electrodes. That work established that the electrodes do not hit the performance ceiling prior studies assumed, a finding that underpins the electrode technology we are building on today.

Get in touch

We are a small team working on a hard problem. If you are a researcher, engineer, or investor who thinks this is worth their time, we want to hear from you.

References

  1. L. Sherwood, Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems (Brooks/Cole, 2016), Chap. 3, p. 101.
  2. World Health Organization, Spinal cord injury, WWW document, (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/spinal-cord-injury) (accessed February 20, 2026).
  3. E. J. McCaughey et al., “Changing demographics of spinal cord injury over a 20-year period,” Spinal Cord 54, 270–276 (2016). doi:10.1038/sc.2015.167
  4. D. McDaid et al., “Understanding and modelling the economic impact of spinal cord injuries in the United Kingdom,” Spinal Cord 57, 778–788 (2019). doi:10.1038/s41393-019-0285-1
  5. M. Khorasanizadeh et al., “Neurological recovery following traumatic spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis,” J. Neurosurg. Spine, 1–17 (2019). doi:10.3171/2018.10.SPINE18802
  6. G. Marsh and H. W. Beams, “In vitro control of growing chick nerve fibers by applied electric currents,” J. Cell. Comp. Physiol. 27, 139–57 (1946).
  7. L. Hinkle, C. D. McCaig, and K. R. Robinson, “The direction of growth of differentiating neurones and myoblasts from frog embryos in an applied electric field,” J. Physiol. 314, 121–135 (1981). doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1981.sp013695
  8. C. D. McCaig, “Dynamic aspects of amphibian neurite growth and the effects of an applied electric field,” J. Physiol. 375, 55–69 (1986). doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1986.sp016105
  9. N. B. Patel and M.-M. Poo, “Perturbation of the direction of neurite growth by pulsed and focal electric fields,” J. Neurosci. 4(12), 2939–47 (1984). doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.04-12-02939.1984