Hope, IMO. Adult stem cells have been quite promising. Especially, where no immunosuppression is required as the cells come from the patients body rather than a donor. However, as the article states, researchers also need to find "a way to prevent transplanted cells from being destroyed by the body" (an autoimmune response in Type I diabetics kills the islet cells) for this to work for everyone (I think current figures are about 1 in 7 islet cell transplants are successful (ie the autoimmune or regular immune response to the transplant kills the new cells in 6 of 7 patients).
The above also brings up another question (in my mind): since these cells come from the actual patient (rather than donor) will success improve the current 1 in 7 figure? Will the genetically identical 'own body' cells suppress or be ignored by the autoimmune response (note: medical folks believe something triggers the response, but they are not certain what that may be)?
I really don't see this as a sham study but a good one. Time will tell.