Diabetes: Progress toward stem cell therapies, a Live Google Hangout

California’s Stem Cell Agency (CIRM) hosted a live Google Hangout about recent progress in stem cell based strategies for diabetes therapies.
 
The speakers included:
Francisco Prieto, MD – CIRM’s diabetes patient advocate governing board member. Dr. Prieto is a practicing physician and researcher who has been active in diabetes care, patient and professional education and exercise promotion throughout his career.
 
Chris Stiehl, a patient advocate for diabetes who has been living with type 1 for 50 years and a former Board member for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
 
Kevin D’Amour, PhD Chief Scientific Officer and Howard Foyt, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, ViaCyte, Inc. 
Viacyte, a CIRM-funded, San Diego-based company has developed a device that is implanted under the skin and that secretes insulin and other hormones to keep blood glucose levels under control. The device contains insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. The product is scheduled to enter clinical this year.