Diabetes Research Successes

Dr. James Shapiro

Congratulations to Dr. James Shapiro on the selection of his paper “Pancreas and Islet Transplantation: Comparative Outcome Analysis of a Single-centre Cohort over 20-years” to be a part of the "What’s New and Interesting in Annals of Surgery" project. The editors select papers based upon the clinical and social impact that they may have on the profession. By inclusion in this program the article is featured on the journal’s homepage. The news follows last year’s resounding success for Dr. James Shapiro and his diabetes research team who have worked intensively to optimize the purity and potency of their human autologous blood-derived iPSC-islet manufacturing protocols. They are anticipate this data will gain ethical approval for a clinical trial, allowing the first patients to be treated within the next 1-2 years without immune suppression. Dr. Shapiro, who renewed his Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Transplant Surgery and Regenerative Medicine, published a paper in Cell Reports Medicine showing that patients with type 1 diabetes receiving stem cell islets made from ES cells had measurable insulin production in the blood - for the very first time ever shown. in the study, 36% had this and 63% had insulin producing cells seen inside the devices. He also published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology a study on the 20-year experience with the Edmonton Protocol long term outcomes.
Dr. Shapiro won the inaugural Leonard Researcher Award, and team members Drs. Braulio Marfil-Garza and Kevin Verhoeff won top presentation awards at the Alberta Diabetes Institute. Dr. Marfil-Garza also received the Governor General’s Gold Medal 22/23. In the academic year 2021-2022, Dr. Shapiro published 22 journal articles (18 as first/senior author). Dr. Shapiro is a key member of a multi-disciplinary team from across Canada that has received Stem Cell Network’s $3million Horizon Award: In the academic year 2021-2022 the ream received a total of $5.7M in new grants to support this work, and an additional $1M from the University Hospital Foundation is pending.