On Oct. 9, 2014, a landmark study led by Douglas Melton from Harvard University successfully generated functional, mature human insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells in vitro, directly from human pluripotent stem cells.

This marked a significant advancement in potential treatments for type 1 diabetes by providing a source of insulin-producing cells for transplantation. This achievement was considered a major breakthrough in the field of stem cell research for diabetes treatment. The study was published in the journal Cell.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune metabolic condition in which the body kills off all the pancreatic beta cells that produce the insulin needed for glucose regulation in the body. While diabetics can keep their glucose metabolism under general control by injecting insulin multiple times a day, that does not provide the kind of exquisite fine tuning necessary to properly control metabolism, and that lack of control leads to devastating complications from blindness to loss of limbs.