Ask HN: Who is working on repairing nerves?

This is my first ask HN so, I hope I do it the right way.

For quite a time, I have found increasingly hard to accept that we still cannot repair nerves, leaving people prisoners of wheelchairs or worse. Conceptually, we are talking about something as basic as an electric wire being cut between a central computer and various types of sensors and actuators.

I have been explained that this is a very very hard problem, but I have also had a difficult time understanding who is actively working on this problem.

So, who in the world is working on this problem? Where do we find the cutting edge people? How can a hacker contribute to this?

Thanks!