Are these probes meant to seed life in other solar systems? Is it possible to store viable cells for such long time frames or would we need to have the technology to create life from basic materials? It also seems there's a real danger of these probes overpopulating the galaxy so it might not be something an advanced civilization would utilize.
Not quite. The idea is that a technologically advanced race would most likely send out non biological crafts first. The VNProbe is the idea of a fleet of "drones" built with the simple purpose gathering materials to rebuild more of themselves. As they travel and reproduce, they expand in a relatively short period of time. Just found a quick video on it, it's actually an amazingly short period of time. 10 million years, they could cover our galaxy. On a cosmic scale, that's nothing.