ViaCyte Appoints Dr. Manasi Sinha Jaiman as Vice President, Clinical Development

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ViaCyte, Inc., a clinical stage regenerative medicine company, today announced the appointment of Manasi Sinha Jaiman, M.D., M.P.H. as Vice President, Clinical Development. Dr. Jaiman joins ViaCyte from Covance Clinical Development Services, where she was Senior Medical Director. She was also an attending physician at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was responsible for clinical care of type 1 and type 2 diabetes pediatric patients and was a co-investigator for the bionic pancreas trials at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"We are excited to welcome Manasi to the team," said Paul Laikind, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of ViaCyte. "In addition to having a deep understanding of clinical care for type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Manasi has exceptional experience in clinical research and trials for innovative diabetes technologies." 

ViaCyte is the only company with stem cell-derived islet replacement candidates undergoing clinical testing and the only group to show that the implanted cells, when effectively engrafted, are capable of producing insulin in people with type 1 diabetes. The Company's promising candidates have the potential to deliver a functional cure for people with type 1 diabetes and a significant advancement for people with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes.

"Throughout my career, I have been driven to find new ways to advance innovative medical technologies that can solve some of the world's greatest problems in diabetes," said Dr. Jaiman. "ViaCyte has made significant scientific and clinical breakthroughs, and I look forward to working with the team to build on their successes and advance the Company's cell therapies to transform how diabetes is treated."

Dr. Jaiman received her M.D. from Medical University of South Carolina and M.P.H. from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and endocrinology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, with a focus on type 1 diabetes research.

"I look forward to working closely with Manasi on the clinical trials for PEC-Direct and PEC-Encap product candidates and clinical plan for PEC-QT," said Howard Foyt, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of ViaCyte. "Manasi's expertise in both drug and device development will be an asset as we drive the clinical development to advance the first stem cell-derived cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes."

About ViaCyte

ViaCyte is a privately held regenerative medicine company developing novel cell replacement therapies as potential long-term diabetes treatments to achieve glucose control targets and reduce the risk of hypoglycemia and diabetes-related complications. ViaCyte's product candidates are based on directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into PEC-01 pancreatic islet progenitor cells, which are then implanted in durable and retrievable cell delivery devices. Over a decade ago, ViaCyte scientists were the first to report on the production of pancreatic cells from a stem cell starting point and the first to demonstrate in an animal model of diabetes that, once implanted and matured, these cells secrete insulin and other pancreatic hormones in response to blood glucose levels and can be curative. More recently, ViaCyte demonstrated that when effectively engrafted, PEC-01 cells can mature into glucose-responsive insulin-producing cells in patients with type 1 diabetes. To accelerate and expand its efforts, ViaCyte has established collaborative partnerships with leading companies including CRISPR Therapeutics and W.L. Gore & Associates. ViaCyte is funded in part by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and JDRF. ViaCyte is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more, please visit www.viacyte.com and connect with ViaCyte on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

SOURCE ViaCyte, Inc.

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