Stem cell therapy is not likely to be curative for Type I DM, although this is simply my opinion and I have no evidence to support it. Part of this is definitional. A true cure for Type I would involve stopping the autoimmune attack of the pancreatic islets.
A therapy that's as good as a cure (such as one that is stem cell based, or otherwise) does seem likely in the next 15 years to me. I've worked on this problem briefly; my role was miniscule, but the basic idea is that you can encapsulate beta cells in an artificially immunologically privileged space, such as an alginate capsule. If done just right, this will let you sense glucose, secrete insulin, and avoid immune attack.
At any rate, yes, I think that we're getting closer to meaningful "post-insulin" therapeutics. Whether or not that will be due to stem cell biology, I don't really know; to be honest, I don't really mind what technique is used so long as it is safe, effective, and maximizes the patients' quality of life.
For some reason I can't reply to carbocation, but in reply to his objection that stem cells wouldn't help due to the autoimmune issue, there's a lab that claims to have solved that problem in mice. Apparently, when you get rid of the autoimmune cells, the insulin-producing beta cells grow back. The lab claims to have had a successful phase I (human) trial. If they're right, stem cells are irrelevant. I don't know enough to really evaluate this, but these are definitely serious people.
There's research going on for MS, another autoimmune disease, which also involves getting rid of the autoimmune cells. Here's one approach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tovaxin
If they can get this kind of thing right, we'll live to see many autoimmune diseases cured.
Excellent! This is the type of thing that gets me more excited, because it's treatment targeted at the cause of the disorder. (Stem cells will be so for certain diseases, too.) I hope they succeed.
It seems like we can also forget about MS being an autoimmune disease - but rather a mechanical issue caused by iron deposits in the blood vessels leading to the brain:
Do you think his research will result in type I diabetes being cured in humans in our lifetimes?
Should it not be obvious that such a question exceed the ability of even the most sophisticated doctors and biologists today, not to mention anyone on HN. I'd agree that conspiracy and collusion is always part of human behavior but this doesn't prove that anyone knows the path that future efforts at cures will follow.
