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Born in Leeds, England, Dr. Shapiro obtained his Medical Degree at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and trained in Surgery at the University of Bristol. He went to Canada in 1993 to train in liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery, and continued his research studies in experimental islet transplantation that he began in Newcastle as a medical student. His Ph.D. studies in Edmonton initially involved the screening of new drug combinations for possible testing in islet transplantation. He then further trained in liver surgery in Vancouver, in living donor liver transplant surgery in Japan, and in whole pancreas transplant surgery at the University of Maryland. In 1998, he was recruited back to the University of Alberta as a talented multiorgan transplant surgeon.
With his strong background in clinical immunosuppression and experimental islet transplantation research, Dr. Shapiro was asked to lead the Clinical Islet Transplant Program team in Edmonton and, together with Drs. Lakey, Ryan, Rajotte, Kneteman and Korbutt, Dr. Shapiro developed and tested a new protocol that used a steroid-free antirejection regimen, coupled with sufficient numbers of transplanted islets. This research has since become known as the Edmonton Protocol, and has galvanized research activity in clinical islet transplantation worldwide. Dr. Shapiro also initiated the whole pancreas transplant program at the University of Alberta in 1999, and in the same year performed the first emergency living-related donor liver transplant in Canada in a child with fulminant liver failure.
Dr. Shapiro is the principal investigator of the high-profile, international, multicenter trial of islet transplantation to test the Edmonton Protocol at 9 international sites, sponsored by the Immune Tolerance Network. He is also the principal investigator and director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Clinical Center for Islet Transplantation, created in 2001, at the University of Alberta. In 2002, Dr. Shapiro was awarded the Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Wyeth Clinical Research Chair in Transplantation at the University of Alberta for his accomplishments in islet transplantation research. He has developed a strong collaborative link with Dr. Chris Larsen of Emory University, and is the principal investigator of an upcoming joint Edmonton-Emory clinical trial of LEA29Y in islet recipients supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Shapiro maintains an active immunology/transplant research laboratory focused on the aspects of tolerance induction relating to islet transplantation with emphasis on costimulatory blockade and chimerism, with translational potential to clinical islet recipients. In early 2004, Dr. Shapiro was awarded an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scholarship to support his ongoing tolerance research.
As the director of the clinical islet transplant program, Shapiro led the clinical team, and together with Dr. Lakey and others, developed and tested a new protocol that used a steroid-free antirejection regimen, together with sufficient numbers of transplanted islets. Using this protocol, clinical success was improved from 8% to 100% insulin independence at one year. | 