Scientists seeking to bring the brains of dead people back to life have won approval for a groundbreaking trial.

A biotech company has been granted ethical permission to find 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury, to test, with their families' consent, whether parts of their central nervous system can be regenerated.

The long term vision of the project is 'a full recovery' of clinically dead patients. Credit:Michele Mossop

Researchers will inject the patients' brains with stem cells twice a week and with a daily cocktail of amino acids, as well as using lasers and nerve stimulation techniques which have been shown to bring people out of comas.

The patients will have been certified dead and only kept alive through life support.