DoM's Dr. Peter Senior and director of the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Diabetes Institute celebrates 25 years of the Edmonton Protocol
3 June 2025
Dr. James Shapiro
By Gillian Rutherford, Folio
‘It literally saved my life’: Edmonton Protocol celebrates 25 years of success
Diabetes patients, researchers, donors and funders will gather this week at the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Diabetes Institute to celebrate 25 years since the Edmonton Protocol was first published by a team of ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine. Edmonton’s islet cell transplant program has since grown into one of the world’s largest and most successful.
It was a life-saver for Yukon patient Rebecca Kalles Meng, now 61, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes since she was five years old. Her disease became increasingly difficult to control, and she would end up in hospital regularly. She could no longer live alone.
Five years ago, she received two transplants of insulin-producing islet cells into her liver under the Edmonton Protocol.
“My whole world changed after the transplant. My blood sugars stabilized, and I no longer needed someone with me all the time,” says Kalles Meng. “I now have my own life, and I have freedom. It makes me feel so good. It literally saved my life.”
Before the Edmonton Protocol, 293 patients around the world had received islet transplants, but only eight per cent remained insulin independent. The U of A team focused on better ways to prepare sufficient islets, transplant without surgery and care for the patients afterwards, in particular developing a unique regime of anti-rejection drugs.
“The Edmonton Protocol evolved out of desperation as a last-ditch attempt, and honestly I did not think it would work!” recalls , professor of surgery, and lead author on the original paper. “When the seventh patient was insulin-free with excellent sugar control, it was clear we had something special — and strikingly different from what had gone before.”
“Today, more than 3,000 islet transplants have been carried out worldwide, and more than anything, patients and their families have real, tangible hope of a better quality and longer life ahead,” Shapiro says. “I am so proud of our clinical research team that made this happen and has made a difference”...“It’s important to mark this anniversary and celebrate the contributions from researchers, patients and donors that took an idea that seemed impossible and made it a reality,” says , professor of medicine, director of the ¾ÅÐãÖ±²¥ Diabetes Institute and Charles A. Allard Chair in Diabetes Research.
“Just as important is our anticipation of what’s coming next — taking lessons from the last 25 years to pave the way for the next generation of islet cell transplants using an unlimited supply of stem-cell-derived islets,” Senior says.