US companies given permission to try and bring people back from the dead

The tests will include a range of different techniques, like lasers and stem cell treatment

Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow, around whose death and potential resurrection there remains a great deal of mystery

Scientists in the US have been given permission to try and bring dead people back to life.

Initial tests will use a range of techniques on 20 subjects to see whether they show any sign of regeneration, or the reversal of brain death.

The group behind the tests hope that they can pioneer ways of keeping people alive after their brains have been judged to have died – and then to potentially re-grow their brains and help them overcome such trauma.

The company notes that humans don’t currently have any way of regenerating their brains – but other species do. Some fish and amphibians are able to regenerate and then remodel large parts their brain, even after life-threatening trauma.

Scientists hope that the same work could help with people who are in comas or suffering from degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, even if it doesn’t succeed in bringing people back from the dead.

In a statement, the company noted that while much work has been done on preventing people from dying, little has been done about bringing people back once they had moved “through the brain death window”.

That state is “currently defined by the medical establishment as “irreversible”, they are technically no longer alive, despite the fact that human bodies can still circulate blood, digest food, excrete waste, balance hormones, grow, sexually mature, heal wounds, spike a fever, and gestate and deliver a baby,” the company notes in a statement.

“It is even acknowledged by thought leaders that recently brain dead humans still may have residual blood flow and electrical nests of activity in their brains, just not enough to allow for an integrated functioning of the organism as a whole.”

The approval will mean that the two companies – Bioquark Inc and Revita Life Sciences – will be able to start up with their study with the approval of the US.

“We are very excited about the approval of our protocol,” said Ira S. Pastor, the CEO of Bioquark, in a statement. “With the convergence of the disciplines of regenerative biology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical resuscitation, we are poised to delve into an area of scientific understanding previously inaccessible with existing technologies.”

Extinct spider 'resurrected'

The description of the study on the US government’s official website describes it as a “proof of concept” that will use a range of techniques to try and bring its subjects back to life. Those will include stem cell techniques and lasers, according to the same document.

The tests will take place at a hospital in India.