An Italian research team has come up with a key new material able to repair nerve lesions, according to a study published Tuesday. The material assembles itself and becomes a sort of scaffolding on which to grow brain stem cells and in future repair nerve lesions, according to tests on mice.

Tests are now being conducted on pigs and, in light of new data, human testing could start in three year's time, said the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).