Researchers have developed a large-scale method for turning human embryonic stem cells into fully functioning beta cells capable of producing insulin. Stem cells are essentially undifferentiated cells that can be induced into becoming specialized cells that are tissue- or organ-specific.

People without diabetes have an average of 1 billion beta cells, but only about 150 million are actually needed to do the job. Producing that quantity is essentially no longer a problem, according to Melton, co-director of the Stem Cell Institute at Harvard. He and his colleagues outlined the recent results in the journal Cell. The researchers ultimately envisions a credit card-sized package of beta cells that can be safely transplanted into a diabetes patient and left in place for a year or more, before needing to be replaced. The induced beta cells have roughly the same genetic expression, structure and function as naturally produced human beta cells, the study authors explained. And ongoing animal testing suggests that when transplanted into mice they don't just control diabetes, they cure it.

"When provided to an immuno-compromised mouse, we can cure their diabetes right away, in less than 10 days," Melton said. He described his work as a "personal quest," given that he has two children with type 1 diabetes. If that research pans out, the Harvard team's results may prove to be a benchmark in the multi-decade effort to deliver on the promise of stem cell research as a way to access new treatments for all sorts of diseases. But between then and now, human trials must be launched, a venture Melton thinks could begin in about three years.

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