SAN DIEGO (CNS) – Injured adult brain cells revert to an embryonic state and become capable of re-growing new connections, which under the right conditions can help restore lost brain function, according to findings published Wednesday by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

The findings, published in the academic journal ‘Nature,’ were part of a collaborative study between UC San Diego, UCLA and the University of Tennessee.

Repairing damage to the brain and spinal cord, until relatively recently, seemed an impossible task. The new study lays out a “transcriptional roadmap of regeneration in the adult brain.”