Coma Patient
A coma patient has his brain parameters checked to understand when he is ready to be stimulated, at Sant'Anna hospital in Crotone, south of Italy, December 16, 2014. Reuters/Max Rossi

Another groundbreaking medical experiment is expected to create buzz and controversy similar to when Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero announced plans to perform the world’s first head transplant on a Russian man in late 2017.

The clinical trial on stimulating the nervous systems on 20 brain-dead patients would be performed by Bioquark, a biotech company in the US. The company’s ReAnima project aims to bring back life from the dead, reports IFLScience.

Bioquark was given ethical permission by the Institutional Review Board in the US and India on 20 patients, reports The Telegraph. Leading the experiment is Dr Calixto Machado, a known neurological researcher, author on various studies on brain death and member of the American Academy of Neurology.

They will use a combination of therapies, including injecting the brain with stem cells and a mixture of peptides, and using lasers and nerve stimulation techniques to bring the patients out of coma. The 20 would be certified dead but kept alive though life support, and would be monitored for several months with brain imaging equipment for signs of regeneration, especially in the upper spinal cord.

The experiment hopes the brain stem cells could erase the history and restart life for the comatose patients based on surrounding tissues. The scientists based their optimism on a process in the animal kingdom, such as among salamanders which could regrow entire limbs.

Bioquark believes the science community is at a point where tools of regenerative biology, resuscitation/reanimation research and clinical neuroscience would converge and lead it, through ReAnima, a major scientific breakthrough.

The firm notes that “Far too often, death arrives too early and too unexpectedly.” Ira Pastor, CEO of Bioquark, says she hopes to see results within the first two to three months. The trial would be held at the Anupam Hospital in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand in India.

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