Nerve repair with injected gel

At the University of Texas at Austin, scientists have been working on a material that would be implanted in humans to help nerves repair themselves. Usually nerves cannot grow across a large gap once they have been severed. However, the gel-like material these scientists are developing will allow the nerves to grow across these gaps. The artificial material in development is a gel that is implanted with cells that secrete proteins that stimulate nerve growth. The gel is also coated with the proteins and sugars that nerves latch on to as they grow. The gel would be injected with undifferentiated cells and the gel would guide how these cells differentiated in nerve repair. The testing of this gel is still at an early stage and has yet to undergo animal testing.

based on the article found at http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/biomedical/devices/artificial-materials-to-repair-damaged-nerves-and-disappear