In 1992, transplantation of the endocrine pancreas is placed at the interface between laboratory research and clinical medicine. Unlike other forms of transplantation, it is not life saving, and yet its potential to treat all patients with insulin dependent diabetes is limited only by the availability of donated organs. Arguably, the long term glucose homoeostasis provided by vascularised pancreas transplantation is the standard by which other forms of endocrine pancreas transplantation (islet cell, fetal islet, and xenogeneic transplantation) must be judged. For the small number of type I diabetic Australians who develop end-stage renal failure and would otherwise require a renal transplant, the combined transplant procedure is a technically viable treatment option and, with some justification, the treatment of choice.