Here’s the skinny from my one of my favorite journalists, Kristen Philipkoski:
Stem Cells Key to Diabetes Cure.

Dr. Fred Levine, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Diego, is doing similar work.
“There’s a lot of ambiguity about what constitutes a stem cell, and it’s becoming less and less clear, rather than more, in this field,” Levine said.
He and his colleagues have succeeded in forcing insulin-secreting beta cells to grow in culture, which causes them to revert to an earlier stage of development.
The problem is, cells like to do one of two things: revert to an earlier stage of development and replicate indefinitely, or differentiate into a specific type of cell.

Here’s the full text of the article in case the link goes bad:
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,55239,00.html
Stem Cells Key to Diabetes Cure
By Kristen Philipkoski
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