Chalk up another exciting development for the stem cell and regenerative medicine field in 2014 related to diabetes. It’s been a huge year. (Update: read my Fall 2019 interview with ViaCyte here.)
For the first time ever, an ES cell-based device has been transplanted into a diabetic patient.
ViaCyte working together with Dr. Robert Henry at UCSD did the pioneering transplant, the first in a series as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial being conducted as UCSD Health System.
The trial is a combined Phase I/II testing the safety of ViaCyte’s VC-01 product.
The PR says, “In an open-label, dose-escalating format, ViaCyte expects to enroll approximately 40 patients in the study at multiple clinical sites.” It is entitled “A Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy Study of VC-01™ Combination Product in Subjects With Type I Diabetes Mellitus.”
VC-01 employs human pancreatic progenitor cells derived from human ES cells. The rationale here is that in preclinical studies the cells were shown to have a significantly positive influence on blood sugar in Diabetic mice.
This is an exciting, positive development for the field and for patients. I can’t wait to see how the trial goes and am cautiously hopeful.
Anxious to hear anything/updates
do we know how this is human trial is going?
The clinical trial link did not include publications. I’m not in your field, but the following seems relevant and interesting (at least to me).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356395/
When our scientists will be able to develop human cloning in order to see my baby died again that life without him is very difficult
متى سيتمكن علمائنا من تطوير الاستنساخ البشري لكي ارى طفلي المتوفي مرة اخرى ان الحياة من دونه صعبة جدا