Scientists at the Imperial College London believe that giving heart attack victims an injection of stem cells will trick the organ into repairing itself, saving lives.
Crucially, and unlike other techniques being tested on patients in the UK, the cells they plan to use are from a person's own heart, an innovation they believe increases the odds of the treatment being a success, the Daily Mail reported.
The researchers will soon apply for permission to test the jab on patients.
If trials on heart attack survivors are successful, the injection could eventually be given by paramedics just minutes after a heart attack and before patients even reach hospital.
Doctors and scientists around the world are trying to use stem cells - 'blank' cells able to turn into various types of tissue - to shore up ailing hearts with most focusing on cells taken from bone marrow.
The Imperial team believes that stem cells from the heart will be much more successful.
These cells are extremely rare, with just 300 per million normal heart cells. Scientists have found a way of extracting them from a patient's own heart, and growing them in huge numbers the laboratory, before injecting them back into the heart.
Once there, they patch up the ailing tissue, with tests on mice showing stem cells taken from the animals' hearts trigger the growth of new tissue and blood vessels.
With it taking three to four months to grow enough cells for each jab, the first patients will be treated several months after a heart attack.
However, in time, it may be possible to create a one-size-fits-all jab, allowing almost immediate treatment, said researcher Professor Michael Schneider.
The jab is one of several treatments being researched by the British Heart Foundation as part of its multi-million-pound Mending Broken Hearts project to improve the care of heart attack patients.
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