A project to explore the possibility of bringing people back from the dead has been given the green light by health watchdogs.
US biotech company Bioquark Inc has been granted ethical permission to begin the groundbreaking trials.
The project will involve 20 patients who have been declared brain dead as the result of a traumatic brain injury and will "test whether parts of their central nervous system can be brought back to life" using a combination of different therapies, says the Daily Telegraph.
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"This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime," says Dr Ira Pastor, the chief executive of Bioquark.
The team is working with a hospital to identify families where there may be a religious or medical barrier to organ donation.
"To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness," Pastor said. "We hope to see results within the first two to three months."
The test subjects will be monitored for signs of regeneration, particularly in the upper spinal cord, which controls independent breathing and the heartbeat.
It is believed that with the right cocktail of peptides, lasers and nerve-stimulation techniques, brain stem cells may be able to "erase their history and re-start life again, based on their surrounding tissue", a process seen in the animal kingdom in creatures such as salamanders, which can regrow entire limbs, says the Telegraph.
