ViaCyte, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) endocrine/metabolic news

CIRM and JDRF each awarded ViaCyte an additional $3 million to support IND-enabling research with VC-01. ViaCyte plans to begin clinical testing in 2014 for VC-01 to treat Type I diabetes. VC-01 comprises ViaCyte's PEC-01 cells, which are human embryonic stem cells (hESCs)-derived pancreatic progenitor cells, encapsulated in ViaCyte's implantable Encaptra delivery system. In October, CIRM awarded $10.1 million to ViaCyte to support development of VC-01 (see BioCentury, Nov. 5, 2012). ...