Karen Addington, chief executive of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, who funded the research said the study provided "proof of principle" of an artificial pancreas.
Dr Lorenz Studer, head of the Stem Cell and Tumor Biology Laboratory at the centre, and the lead researcher on the study, told BBC News Online that the study was "proof of principle" that cloned embryonic stem cells could be reliably transformed into a variety of useful cell types.