“Stem cells are finally on the brink of delivering. Take the case of Justin Graves, a man with debilitating epilepsy who received a transplant of lab-made neurons, engineered to quell the electrical misfires in his brain that cause epileptic attacks.

Since the procedure, carried out in 2023 at the University of California, San Diego, Graves has reported having seizures about once a week, rather than once per day as he used to. ‘It’s just been an incredible, complete change,’ he says. ‘I am pretty much a stem-cell evangelist now.’

…

Last June, a different stem-cell study delivered dramatic results. This time it was in type 1 diabetes, the autoimmune condition formerly called juvenile diabetes, in which a person’s body attacks the beta islet cells in the pancreas. Without working beta cells to control their blood sugar levels, people with type 1 diabetes rely on daily blood glucose monitoring and insulin injections or infusions to stay alive.

In this ongoing study, carried out by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, some patients who got transfusions of lab-made beta cells have been able to stop taking insulin. Instead, their new cells make it when it’s needed.”

From MIT Technology Review.