Jun 15, 2017   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

ViaCyte Presents at the ISSCR 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston

SAN DIEGO, June 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ViaCyte, Inc., a privately-held regenerative medicine company, today announced a presentation at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) 2017 Annual Meeting in Boston. ViaCyte is developing novel stem cell-derived islet replacement therapies for insulin-requiring diabetes. The presentation at ISSCR details methods of generating mature glucose-responsive insulin-producing beta cells in vitro. The work presented is an extension of the first ever report of generating glucose-responsive beta-like cells in vitro from pluripotent stem cells, published September 2014 in Nature Biotechnology by Alireza Rezania, Ph.D., and colleagues.

"We believe that these in vitro cells have now acquired some cardinal features of naturally occurring mature human pancreatic beta cells. The ability to create mature pancreatic beta cells in vitro is valuable not only for research into cell replacement therapies but also for disease modeling and drug testing," said Dr. Rezania, Senior Scientific Director at ViaCyte. "In our study, detailed kinetic characterization of the generated cells shows that insulin secretion is acutely coupled to glucose levels. I look forward to discussing these results with the stem cell community as we work to establish the metrics that define the mature pancreatic beta cell in vitro."

Details of the presentation are as follows:

    Event:                         ISSCR 2017 Annual Meeting

    Speaker:                        Dr. Alireza Rezania, Senior
                                    Scientific Director

    Title:                          Differentiating ES Cells to Mature
                                    Pancreatic Beta Cells in
                                    Incubators

    Date/Time:                     June 15, 4:05 pm EDT

    Location:                       Boston Convention and Exhibition
                                    Center

For more information about ViaCyte's participation in industry events, please visit: http://viacyte.com/news-events-2/viactye-events/

About ViaCyte

ViaCyte is a privately-held regenerative medicine company developing novel cell replacement therapies as potential long-term diabetes treatments to reduce the risk of hypoglycemia and diabetes-related complications. ViaCyte's product candidates are based on the derivation of pancreatic progenitor cells from stem cells, which are then implanted in a durable and retrievable cell delivery device. Once implanted and matured, these cells are designed to secrete insulin and other pancreatic hormones in response to blood glucose levels. ViaCyte has two products in development. The PEC-Direct(TM) product candidate delivers the pancreatic progenitor cells in a non-immunoprotective device and is being developed for type 1 diabetes patients who have severe hypoglycemic episodes, extreme glycemic lability, and/or impaired awareness of hypoglycemia. The PEC-Encap(TM) (also known as VC-01) product candidate delivers pancreatic progenitor cells in an immunoprotective device and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 trial in patients with type 1 diabetes who have minimal to no insulin-producing beta cell function. ViaCyte is headquartered in San Diego, California. The Company is funded in part by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and JDRF. For more information on ViaCyte, please visit www.viacyte.com and connect with ViaCyte on Twitter and Facebook.

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SOURCE ViaCyte, Inc.