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In a Quebec first, a team of physicians at the McGill University Health Centre has infused a woman with Type I diabetes with insulin-producing cells, avoiding the need for a potentially risky organ-transplant operation and the lengthy hospital stay associated with it.

The hour-long procedure was carried out on May 23 at the MUHC superhospital and was the culmination of a decade of research. The MUHC hopes it will become a centre of excellence for the procedure — known as an islet transplant — for eastern Quebec and the northeast United States.

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There is only one other centre in Canada, in Edmonton, that has developed the ultra-specialized expertise to perform islet transplants. The MUHC has already attracted researchers from Boston to learn more about its program.

“We certainly hope that this will not only be an MUHC network resource but a Quebec resource, and that transplant centres in Eastern Canada and Ontario will use us,” said Dr. Steven Paraskevas, director of the program.