Ceryx Medical is a medtech company developing bioelectronic devices based on chip technology that mimics neural circuits known as central pattern generators (CPGs). These biological control systems regulate rhythmic and autonomic processes such as peristalsis, heart rate, and walking. Ceryx Medical’s artificial CPG technology is being incorporated into medical devices intended to restore physiological function when these processes are disrupted by disease or injury.

Bioelectronics Inspired by the Nervous System

Bioelectronics involves the use of electronic devices and implants in medicine and biological research. Ceryx Medical uses analogue electronics to recreate aspects of biological signalling, with circuitry that models cell membranes, ion channels, and action potentials. The technology allows its devices to interpret physiological signals in real time and generate biological-style output signals that interact with the body. Artificial neurons can be assembled into neural networks that mimic CPGs, which regulate rhythmic processes such as walking, swallowing, and breathing. This technology is being investigated for restoring physiological functions impaired by disease or injury.

Addressing the Challenge of Heart Failure

Heart failure occurs when the heart can no longer supply sufficient blood to meet the body’s needs. Damage caused by heart attacks, infections, or chronic hypertension can impair cardiac function, and once heart failure develops, preventing disease progression remains difficult. Current treatment is largely directed toward controlling symptoms, reducing mortality, and, during earlier stages, preventing or slowing cardiac remodeling. Clinicians must balance efforts to maximise cardiac performance and relieve symptoms with the need to limit stress on an already damaged heart.

Approximately 30 million people worldwide live with heart failure, with management of the condition accounting for about £100 billion, or 2% of global healthcare budgets. Approximately 50% of patients die within five years, reflecting the limitations of existing therapies. Ceryx Medical’s bioelectronic technology is being investigated in this clinical setting as a means of influencing physiological processes involved in cardiac function.

Cysoni: Bioelectronic Technology for Heart Failure

Named after the Welsh word for “synchronisation,” Cysoni has been created specifically for heart failure. The device continuously monitors the patient’s cardiorespiratory system, processes physiological information, and generates precisely timed electrical impulses intended to optimise the beating of the heart. Five years of laboratory testing and preclinical evaluation have been conducted, with the technology also being investigated for hypertension, spinal cord injury, and endocrine disorders such as diabetes.

Cysoni has the potential to restore cardiac performance, improve measures such as ejection fraction and cardiac output, reduce symptoms including breathlessness and exhaustion, improve physical performance, relieve stress on the heart, and facilitate reversal of cardiac remodeling associated with heart failure. These functions are intended to improve cardiac performance and quality of life for patients living with heart failure

Expanding Bioelectronic Applications

Following work in cardiac pacing, Ceryx Medical is exploring additional applications for its bioelectronic technology across conditions involving disrupted physiological signalling. In hypertension, the technology is being investigated for real-time blood pressure modulation, with the potential to avoid dangerous blood-pressure drops associated with some existing medications. This application is currently in advanced preclinical testing.

Applications in spinal cord injury and dysphagia are also being investigated. For spinal cord injuries, Ceryx’s technology is intended to replicate spinal signals lost through injury or disease to restore movement. In dysphagia, the technology is being explored to re-coordinate muscle activity involved in swallowing, potentially helping patients regain swallowing function following neurological injury.

STUART PLANT | CEO

Stuart Plant is the Chief Executive Officer of Ceryx Medical Ltd, a position he has held since December 2019. During his tenure, he has raised more than $15 million across multiple investment rounds, taken Ceryx’s bioelectronic technology from the laboratory to clinical development, and planned and executed international clinical studies. Before joining Ceryx Medical, Plant served as Director of New Business and Partnerships at IP Group plc from October 2012 to December 2019, where he worked as a life science venture capital investor. Earlier in his career, he served as Cellular & Molecular Biology Manager at GE Healthcare from March 2007 to January 2013 and as a Research Fellow at Diabetes UK from June 2003 to June 2006.

Plant holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Biomedical/Medical Engineering from the University of Nottingham. His experience spans medical research, healthcare technology, life science investment, and bioelectronic device development, with his current work at Ceryx Medical centered on bringing the company’s bioelectronic technology into clinical applications.