I completed Medical School at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne. My first taste of research was in islet transplantation. I knew I wanted to be a surgeon but it was super-competitive at the time. I was convinced I was not smart enough to get in, so several people advised me to think about a year of research to help me stand out. I went to see a surgeon called John Farndon who was a Consultant Surgeon and Senior Lecturer at the time. He had a long list of typed out projects. One caught my eye – islet transplants in rats, and the use of cryopreservation to alter immunogenicity. I had never seen a rat before, knew nothing about diabetes or cryopreservation, but signed up for a year’s research (B.Med.Sci.) project. I asked John if this was a good topic to pick. He told me he wouldn’t sell me a lemon! It set me on my path forward to today. I completed the one-year research project with John Farndon and Tom Lennard – both of whom later became Professors and Heads of Department in Bristol and Newcastle respectively. My initial islet experiments were all failures despite my working day and night (including sleeping in the animal house to monitor 24-hour glucoses from the rat tails).

I completed House Jobs at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and in Cambridgeshire, and in moving I had a small upright piano for sale. One evening I got a phone message from John Farndon saying “No, I don’t want to buy a bloody piano, but if you want a job in Bristol call me back!” I was an Anatomy Demonstrator in Bristol for a year, then applied to the junior (Senior House Officer, SHO) rotation in General Surgery – but did not get in (perhaps because John couldn’t make it to the interview). I was lucky enough to spend six months as an SHO in Urology which was great fun and provided early solid training in major retroperitoneal surgery. Finally, I was appointed to the SHO rotation in Bristol in General Surgery and completed the two-year training and an additional six months as a Registrar. I had a career advice meeting with John at one point – he told me to go to Canada to train in liver transplant surgery, and that I shouldn’t come back (more than a subliminal message that it was time to get rid of me)! Professor Derek Alderson had direct contacts with the Professor Norman Kneteman in Edmonton, Canada and one phone call set me on my way to Fellowship. I completed a two-year fellowship in liver transplant surgery in Edmonton, completed a Ph.D. in experimental surgery with Norman in models of islet transplantation (this time the experiments worked). The paediatric liver transplant surgeon in Edmonton left unexpectedly and they begged me to stay – where I have remained ever since. I completed a further two years of Chief Residency in General Surgery, during which time I was able to complete three additional 6-month Fellowships – in hepatobiliary oncologic surgery in Vancouver with Buz Scudamore, whole pancreas transplant surgery with Stephen Bartlett at the University of Maryland, and in living donor liver transplant surgery with Professor Koichi Tanaka in Kyoto. I joined the Faculty at the University of Alberta in 1998 and moved through the ranks to Full Professor and Canada Research Chair. I am now the Director of the liver transplant program where we perform around 110 liver transplantations per year, the living donor liver transplant program, and the islet transplant program, as well as over 300 major hepatobiliary operations per year.

Professor James Shapiro and his wife, Vanessa.