We’ve learned how to churn out zillions of insulin-producing cells and maybe even guard them from the immune system for a year or two.

The commercial “stem cell clinics” that have popped up across the U.S. like mosquitoes after rain, offering treatments with little clinic evidence, typically begin with the patient’s own cells. But the stem-cell-based therapies that will soon fundamentally change regenerative medicine will come off the shelf. Case in point, the insulin-producing treatments for type 1 diabetes that I’ve just covered in The Scientist, which are headed for the clinic in the next year or two. Scientists are mastering ways to make reasonably functional beta cells in high volume. ViaCyte is readying a new version of its capsule that doesn’t require immunosuppression and expects to resume clinical trials soon. Semma Therapeutics and Sigilon Therapeutics are reporting progress in pre-clinical studies. Fingers crossed here, but definite progress.

Images courtesy Sigilon Therapeutics.