"There is a bright future in using controllable transplant technology to make new cells carry certain genetic functions to replace cells damaged by brain diseases like Alzheimer and Parkinson," said the scientist.

In his research, Yang and his team marked new neurons in the brains of mice that had suffered strokes, and found they failed to produce the type of cells that control movement.

"The new neurons don't form the kind of spiny neurons like those before the injury, and they are also smaller in size," he said.

The human brain has about 100 billion neurons, which differentiate into about 10,000 types with different functions in the embryonic development period, he explained.

"You can't find a kind of super stem cell in an adult brain, which can differentiate into any type of neuron," said Yang.

But he hoped his new theory on intervention would ultimately bring hope to the treatment of brain diseases like Parkinson, which affects about 1.7 million Chinese.

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Editor:Yang Jie