Clinical islet transplantation as a treatment for diabetes has grown into a viable procedure since the success of the Edmonton group of James Shapiro almost 20 years ago. However, many opportunities exist to introduce improvements in every aspect of this treatment, from organ procurement through the islet isolation/culture process to immune protection of transplanted cells. As such, islet transplantation and its satellite research areas span a large array of techniques, from clinical to laboratory-based procedures. These range from areas such as organ harvest to cell culture, microscopy to transplantation, the use of biological scaffolds to anchor islets to chaperone cells for their protection, pre-transplant cellular manipulation to post-transplant graft visualization and many more methodologies. The aim of this methods collection is to offer insight into a broad range of the techniques employed along the way and to develop a greater understanding of the research being performed to underpin this life-altering clinical procedure.