The team’s goal is to develop a new kind of nerve repair implant – one that better supports the body’s own ability to regrow axons, while also being practical for surgeons to use and realistic to produce for healthcare systems. What makes the project distinctive is how strongly it relies on collaboration across disciplines. It brings together material scientists, polymer chemists, cell biologists, clinicians, and industrial researchers, each contributing a different piece of the puzzle.

At the heart of nerve repair is a simple idea: regenerating nerve fibres need the right environment to grow. After an injury, nerve fibres must travel from the healthy part of the nerve, across the gap, and into the remaining tissue on the other side. To do that successfully, they need physical support, chemical signals that encourage growth, and a supply of oxygen and nutrients provided by new blood vessels. Most existing treatments fall short in at least one of these areas.

One promising approach comes from using real nerve tissue as a starting point. In earlier work, Dr. Vijay Kumar Kuna and colleagues developed a way to take nerve tissue from animals and remove all the living cells from it. This process, known as decellularization, leaves behind the nerve’s natural scaffolding – a complex structure made up of proteins and other molecules that normally support nerve cells. Importantly, this scaffolding still contains many of the signals that tell nerve fibres how and where to grow.

When this decellularized nerve tissue is processed further, it can be turned into a soft gel. At body temperature, the gel holds its shape and can be placed inside a small tube that bridges a nerve gap. In theory, this creates a welcoming pathway for regenerating nerve fibres, guiding them across the injury site in a way that closely resembles their natural surroundings. Previous studies have shown that these nerve-derived gels can support nerve growth and keep helpful support cells alive.

However, there is a catch. Gels made purely from decellularized nerve tissue are fragile. They are sensitive to temperature and difficult to handle. These might seem like minor issues, but they are major obstacles when it comes to using a material in real surgery or producing it at scale for hospitals. A material that works beautifully in a laboratory is not necessarily suitable for an operating theatre.

This is where Dr. Jeddah Marie Vasquez’s earlier work becomes crucial. Vasquez and her collaborators focused on designing advanced synthetic gels made from carefully engineered hyperbranched polymers. These materials can be fine-tuned to have specific strengths, flexibility, and stability. In particular, they developed a gel made from a polymer combined with a natural substance found in the body called hyaluronic acid. The result is a gel that forms quickly, remains stable, and is gentle enough for living cells to survive inside it.

On its own, this polymer-based gel already has many useful properties. But it lacks something important: the biological “instructions” that real nerve tissue provides. The team’s current project aims to bring these two worlds together by combining decellularized nerve tissue with the robust polymer gel. The idea is to create a hybrid material that has the biological cues of natural nerve tissue and the practical strength and stability of a synthetic material.

Doing this is far from straightforward. The nerve-derived material has to be carefully modified so that it can integrate into the polymer network without losing its helpful properties. The research team has developed methods to make this possible, while deliberately keeping some details confidential as they work toward protecting the invention. What matters for now is the outcome: the nerve-based components can be successfully built into the polymer gel, creating a stable material that can be handled easily and does not harm cells.

Early testing shows that this hybrid gel remains solid both at room and body temperature and is compatible with living cells, which are both essential requirements for future medical use. Each step brings the material closer to something that could realistically be used to repair nerves in patients.

The project goes beyond materials alone. Other partners contribute expertise in working with living cells that can further support nerve repair. At Umeå University in Sweden, researchers specialise in preparing stem cells so that they release growth factors that encourage nerve fibres to regenerate. At University College London, scientists have developed living nerve-like structures in which cells are aligned in a way that physically guides growing nerve fibres in the right direction. Previous research has shown that combining these approaches can significantly improve regeneration.

Equally important is the involvement of industrial research partners. Turning an experimental material into a medical product means meeting strict manufacturing and regulatory standards. It must be produced consistently, safely, and in large enough quantities to be useful. By addressing these challenges early, the project aims to shorten the long and difficult path from academic research to real-world treatment.

The research is still at an early stage. The project began in late 2024, and one of its next major goals is to test the new implant in animal models of nerve injury. These studies will help researchers understand not just whether nerves grow across the implant, but whether they reconnect in a meaningful way that restores function.

More broadly, this work highlights how complex medical problems increasingly require collaborative solutions. Repairing a damaged nerve is not just a question of biology, chemistry, or engineering alone. It sits at the intersection of all three, along with clinical practice and industrial production. By combining natural nerve tissue, advanced polymer design, and living cells, and by fostering close collaboration across disciplines, this project offers a hopeful glimpse of how future nerve repair treatments might be developed – and how many different kinds of expertise are needed to make them possible.